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AUTHORIZED TRANSLATIONS 

OF 

Works by Rudolf Steiner, Ph.D. (Vienna) 



THE SUBMERGED CONTINENTS OF ATLANTIS 
AND LEMURIA. Their History and Civilization. 

Being Chapters from the Akashic Records. Authorized 
Translation from the German. 

It will be sufficient to indicate the nature of its contents 
by quoting a few chapter-headings from this important 
work, which deals with the beginnings of humanity up to 
our present civilization: Our Atlantean Forefathers; The 
Lemurian Era; Woman in the Third Root-Race; The First, 
or Polar, Race; The Second, or Hyperborean, Race, etc. 

THE EDUCATION OF CHILDREN from the Stand- 
point of Theosophy. Authorized Translation from the 
Second German Edition. 

The gradual unfolding of the sense of individuality, 
the growth of tastes, inclinations, and distinguishing 
characteristics, often so perplexing to the most loving and 
watchful parents, are all matters touched on here with the 
illuminated wisdom and reverence that have already- 
stamped the works of this great teacher with the impress 
of profound truth. 

MYSTICS OF THE RENAISSANCE, and Their Relation 

to Modern Thought. Authorized Translation from the 
German by Bertram Keightley, M.A. 

In this volume we find the Mystical and Theosophical 
thought- world of the Middle Ages probed to its very 
depths by the searchlight of clear and incisive modern 
criticism. It shows us what the often misinterpreted con- 
ceptions of Boehme, Eckhart, Paracelsus, Giordano 
Bruno, and others may have to offer to men in our day, 
and the relationship in which these great masters of the 
past stand to modern Science and Religion. 



THE GATES OF 
KNOWLEDGE 

WITH AN ADDITIONAL CHAPTER ENTITLED 

PHILOSOPHY AND THEOSOPHY 

BY 

RUDOLF STEINER 

Ph.D. (Vienna) 
AUTHORISED TRANSLATION FROM THE GERMAN 




G, P. PUTNAM'S SONS 

NEW YORK AND LONDON 

Gbe Ifcnfckerboc&er press 

1912 



"B* 



Copyright, 1912 

BY 

MAX GYSI 



MAX GYSI, Editor 
1 Adyar," Park Drive, 
. London, N. W. 



In view of the many unauthorised translations of Dr. RUDOLF 
STEINER'S works, the Publishers beg to give notice that all Author- 
ised Editions, issued under the Editorship of Mr. Max Gysi, bear the 
Symbol overleaf (Cross in Pentagram). 



Zbe ftnfcftetftocfcer press, Hew gorfc 



CONTENTS 

CHAPTER PAGE 

I. — The Four Modes of Knowledge i 

II. — The Occult Functions of Sleep 19 

III. — The Pupil and His Teacher . 40 

IV. — Inspiration .... 68 

V. — Inspiration and Intuition . . 98 

VI. — Philosophy and Theosophy . 123 



ili 



The Gates of Knowledge 



CHAPTER I 

THE FOUR MODES OF KNOWLEDGE 

IN the chapters to which these are a 
sequel, the Path to the Higher Know- 
ledge has been traced up to the point of 
meeting with the two Guardians of the 
Threshold. The relation in which the soul 
stands to the different worlds, as gradually 
it climbs the steps of knowledge will now 
be described. This comprises what may 
be called "the teachings of Occult 
Science." 

Before man enters the Path of the 
Higher Knowledge, he only knows the 
first of its four stages. It is the one which 



2 THE GATES OF KNOWLEDGE 

in ordinary life belongs strictly to the 
world of the senses. Even in what is 
called " science," he has to do only with 
this first grade of knowledge; for such 
science only deals with ordinary know- 
ledge more minutely and in a disciplined 
way. By means of instruments such as 
the microscope, the telescope, etc., he 
makes the senses more effective, and 
discloses to them what they could not 
otherwise perceive. But he is still on the 
same plane of knowledge, whether he 
sees large things with the naked eye, or 
observes very small objects and pheno- 
mena by the aid of a microscope. Also 
in the application of thought to facts 
and things, such science still remains in 
the field of every-day life. Man arranges 
the objects, describes and compares them, 
seeks to picture to himself their varia- 
tions, and so forth. The keenest natur- 



FOUR MODES OF KNOWLEDGE 3 

alist does nothing fundamentally, in this 
respect, beyond bringing to a fine art the 
methods of investigating every-day life. 
His knowledge takes a wider range, 
becomes more complex and more logical, 
but he does not come one step nearer to 
any other mode of cognition. 

In Occult Science this first stage of 
knowledge is called the material mode 
of cognition. This is followed by three 
higher; and there are yet others further 
on. They shall be explained here before 
proceeding further with the description of 
the Path of Knowledge. Beginning with 
the ordinary method of scientific cogni- 
tion, of apprehension through the senses, 
we shall have to differentiate the following 
four stages: 

1. Material Knowledge. 

2. Imaginative Knowledge. 



4 THE GATES OF KNOWLEDGE 

3. Inspirational, called also " Know- 
ledge of the nature of Will." 

4. Intuitive Knowledge. 

The stages that follow these will be 
spoken of later. We must first be quite 
clear as to what we are dealing with in 
these different modes of cognition. In 
the ordinary "sense knowledge" there 
are four elements to be noticed: (1) The 
object which makes an impression on the 
senses; (2) The image which we form of 
this object; (3) The idea by which we 
come to a spiritual comprehension of the 
object or event; (4) The "Ego" which 
forms for itself the image and idea based 
on the impression of the object. Before 
we make for ourselves an image, a repre- 
sentation, there must be an object which 
causes it. We do not form the object, 
we only perceive it; and on the basis of 



POUR MODES OF KNOWLEDGE 5 

the object is the image formed. As long 
as we are looking at an object we are 
dealing with that alone; the moment we 
turn away, we possess only the image of 
it. The object is relinquished, but the 
image remains " fixed" in the memory. 

But man cannot stop at the image- 
making stage, — he must go on to ideas. 
The distinction between " image" and 
"idea" is absolutely necessary if we are 
to be clear at this point. For instance, 
let us picture to ourselves an object which 
is circular in form; then turn away, and 
retain a picture of the circle in the mem- 
ory. But we have not yet the "concep- 
tion" of a circle.- We only attain this 
when we say to ourselves: "A circle is a 
figure in which all points are equi-distant 
from the centre." We come to the 
knowledge of a thing only when we have 
formed a conception of it. There are 



6 THE GATES OF KNOWLEDGE 

many circles — small, large, red, blue, and 
so forth, but there is only one conception 
"Circle." This will be more fully dealt 
with as we proceed; for the present we 
shall give only an outline of what is neces- 
sary in order to distinguish the first four 
steps in knowledge. 

The fourth element which comes under 
consideration in Material cognition is the 
1 ' ego . ' ' In this is accomplished the union 
of images and ideas. The ego stores up 
the image in his memory. If this were 
not the case, no continuous inner life 
would be possible. The images of things 
would remain only so long as the things 
themselves had some effect on the soul. 
But the inner life depends upon the link- 
ing of one perception with another. The 
ego finds his way in the world to-day 
because, with certain objects, the images 
of similar objects of yesterday re-appear. 



FOUR MODES OF KNOWLEDGE 7 

It is obvious that the life of the soul would 
be impossible if we could retain the 
image of a thing only so long as the thing 
itself stood before us. 

In relation to ideas also, the ego forms 
the unity. It combines its ideas and in 
this way makes a survey — arrives at an 
understanding of the world. This linking 
up of ideas is what happens when one 
1 ' forms a judgment. ' ' One who has only 
scattered conceptions does not easily 
find his way about in the world. All 
man's activity depends on his capacity 
to combine conceptions, that is, to form 
opinions. 

The Material mode of cognition con- 
sists in receiving through the senses an 
impression of things together with repre- 
sentations of the outer world. Man has 
the power of perceiving, or " sensibility.' ' 
The impression received from "outside" 



8 THE GATES OF KNOWLEDGE 

is also called " sensation." Therefore in 
"material cognition" four elements have 
to be considered: Sensation, Image, Con- 
ception, Ego. In the next higher stage 
of knowledge, the impression made upon 
the physical senses, the "sensation" falls 
away. There is no longer any outer 
sense-object. There remain only three of 
the factors to which man is accustomed 
in ordinary knowledge: Image, Concep- 
tion, and Ego. Ordinary knowledge in a 
healthy individual creates no image and 
no idea when there is no object present 
to the outer senses. The ego is then 
inactive. He who forms images of sen- 
sible objects which do not actually exist 
lives in fantasy. 

But the occult student acquires this 
very faculty of forming images even when 
no external sense-object is present. Some- 
thing else in him must take the place of 



FOUR MODES OF KNOWLEDGE 9 

external objects. He must be able to 
call up images when no object affects his 
senses. Something else must take the 
place of sensation; and this something is 
Imagination. At this stage, images ap- 
pear to the occult student exactly the 
same as if a sensible object were making 
an impression upon him; they are as 
vivid and true as sense-images, yet they 
come, not from the "material" world, 
but from the world of soul and spirit. 
The senses then remain entirely inactive. 
It is evident that this faculty of forming 
pregnant images without sense-impres- 
sions must first be acquired. This is 
accomplished through meditation, and 
through the exercises which have been 
described elsewhere. x The man confined 
to the world of sense, lives within the 

J See The Way of Initiation, by Rudolf Steiner, Ph.D. 
Third Edition. 237 pp. Cloth, crown 8 vo. 3/10 post free. 



io THE GATES OF KNOWLEDGE 

limits of a sphere of images which have 
gained access to him through the senses. 
But the imaginative man has a world of 
images which he has drawn from a higher 
source. 

A very careful training is necessary in 
order to distinguish delusion from reality 
in this higher world of images. When 
such images first enter a man's mind he 
is inclined to say : ' ' Ah ! that is only fancy ; 
a mere out-flow of my imagination." 
This is quite comprehensible, for man is 
accustomed at present to call that alone 
"rear' which, without his own effort, he 
finds on the sure foundation of the evi- 
dence of his senses. And he must first 
accustom himself to accept as "real" 
things which are caused in quite another 
way. 

In this matter he cannot be too 
careful not to fall into fantasy. The 



THE FOUR MODES OF KNOWLEDGE n 

capacity to decide, in these higher regions, 
what is "real" and what is " illusion," 
can only come by experience. And this 
experience must be gained in a quiet, 
patient inner life. We must be quite 
prepared to find that at first Illusion plays 
sorry tricks with us. Everywhere lurks 
the possibility that images will present 
themselves which are the result of some 
delusion of the outer senses, or of abnor- 
mal life. All such possibilities must first 
be done away with. We must first com- 
pletely arrest the flow of fancy ; then alone 
can we achieve Imagination. When a 
man has come so far, it will be clear to 
him that the world which he has thus 
entered is not only just as real as the 
world of sense, but much more so. 

In the third stage of knowledge, images 
no longer appear. We have now to deal 
only with the Conception and the ego. 



12 THE GATES OF KNOWLEDGE 

Whereas in the second stage there was 
still a world of images around us, remind- 
ing us of the moment at which a vivid 
memory conjures up instantaneously im- 
pressions from the outer world, without 
ourselves receiving such impressions, — in 
the third stage even such images are ab- 
sent. Man lives altogether in a spirit- 
ual world. Those accustomed to confine 
themselves to the senses will be tempted 
to believe this world to be pale and 
colourless. But this is far from being the 
case. Neither has the image- world of the 
second stage anything pale or shadowy 
about it; though this is what the images 
of memory for the most part are, when 
the physical objects have vanished. But 
the pictures of the Imagination have a 
vivacity and a comprehensiveness which 
far surpass those of the shadowy 
memory-pictures of the sensible world, 



FOUR MODES OF KNOWLEDGE 13 

and even the gaudy and ever-changing 
physical world itself. Even this is a 
mere shadow beside the realm of Imagi- 
nation. 

But how shall we describe the world of 
the third stage of knowledge? Nothing 
in the world of sense can give any idea of 
its wealth and luxuriance. That which 
was Sensation in the first stage, Imagi- 
nation in the second, here becomes "In- 
spiration . ' ' Inspiration gives the impres- 
sion, and the ego forms the idea. If 
anything at all in the realm of sense can 
be compared with this world, it is that 
region opened up to us by the sense of 
hearing, the world of tones. But now 
we have to do, not with the tones of 
earthly music, but with a purely spiritual 
cadence. One begins to "hear" what is 
going on at the heart of things. The 
stone, the plant, and §q forth, become 



14 THE GATES OF KNOWLEDGE 

" spiritual words.' ' The world begins 
to express its true nature to the soul. 
It sounds grotesque, but it is literally 
true, that at this stage of knowledge one 
" hears " in spirit the growing of the grass. 
The form of the crystal is perceived as 
sound; the opening blossom " speaks' ' to 
man. The inspired man is able to realise 
the inner nature of things ; his soul beholds 
the resurrection of all things in a new 
form. He speaks a language which be- 
longs to another world, but which alone 
can make the every-day world compre- 
hensible. 

Lastly, in the fourth stage of knowledge 
Inspiration also ceases. Of the several 
factors which man is accustomed to ob- 
serve in every-day knowledge, the ego 
alone remains to be considered. The 
attainment of this stage by the occult 
student is marked by a very definite 



FOUR MODES OF KNOWLEDGE 15 

inner experience. This experience mani- 
fests itself in the feeling that he no longer 
stands outside the things and occurrences 
which he recognises, but is within them. 
Images are not objects, but only the 
expression of them. Again, what Inspi- 
ration gives is not an object, but only 
an utterance of it. For that which now 
lives within the soul is verily the object 
itself. The ego has poured itself forth 
over all beings; it has merged itself in 
them. The life of things in the soul is 
now Intuition; and when we say of 
Intuition that "through it man glides 
into all things,' ' this is literally true. 

In ordinary life man has but one ' ' Intui- 
tion," — that is, of the ego itself. For the 
ego can in no way be perceived from with- 
out; it can only be experienced within. 
A simple consideration will make this fact 
clear, and it is one which psychologists 



16 THE GATES OF KNOWLEDGE 

have not used so forcibly as might be 
wished. Insignificant as it may appear, 
to those who understand it fully it is of 
the most far-reaching significance. It is 
as follows: in the outer world the same 
name may be applied by all to the same 
thing. Any one may call a table a 
"table"; a tulip, a "tulip"; or address 
Mr. Miller as "Mr. Miller." But there 
is one word which each can apply to him- 
self alone: it is the word "I." No other 
person can say " I " to me. To every one 
else I am "you," just as every one else 
is a "you" to me. Only of myself can 
I say "I." And this is because each man 
lives, not outside, but within the "I." 
And in the same way, in Intuitive Cogni- 
tion, does a man live in all things. This 
perception of the ego is the type of all 
intuitive knowledge. And in order thus 
to enter into all things, we must clearly 



FOUR MODES OF KNOWLEDGE 17 

begin by coming out of our self. We 
must become "selfless" before we can 
blend the self, the ego, with another being. 
Meditation and Concentration form 
the sure method by which this stage, as 
the earlier ones, may be reached. But it 
is essential that these be practised in a 
quiet and patient way. He who imagines 
that he can violently and forcibly climb 
into the higher worlds is greatly mistaken. 
One who so believed would also make 
the mistake of expecting the realities of 
the higher regions to approach him in the 
same way as those of the sensible world. 
Rich and vivid as are the worlds to which 
man may climb, they are rare and subtle, 
while the world of sense is coarse and 
rude. The most important thing to be 
learned is that we must accustom our- 
selves to regard as "real" something 
quite other than that which we so desig- 



18 THE GATES OF KNOWLEDGE 

nate in the realm of sense. And this 
is not altogether easy. Herein lies the 
reason why so many who would fain 
tread the Occult Path are frightened 
away at the first steps. They expect to 
encounter things like tables and chairs, 
and find, instead of these, "spirits." 
And because "spirits" are not like tables 
and chairs, they take them for "imagin- 
ings." The fault lies only in their un- 
familiarity with them. We must first 
acquire the right attitude towards the 
spiritual world; then shall we not only 
behold that which is spiritual, but also 
recognise it. And a great part of occult 
training is concerned with this right recog- 
nition and valuation of the spiritual. 



CHAPTER II 

THE OCCULT FUNCTIONS OF SLEEP 

\ A/E must next consider the state of 
" sleep, if we are to come to any 

understanding of Imaginative Know- 
ledge. So long as man has attained to 
no higher stage than Material Cogni- 
tion, the soul, although it truly lives 
during sleep, is unable to perceive any- 
thing in the world in which it then 
dwells. It is in this world like a blind 
man in the world of matter. Such a one 
lives in the midst of light and colour, but 
is unable to perceive them. From the 
outer sense-organs — the eye, the ear, the 
ordinary activity of the brain, and so 
forth — the soul, in sleep, has withdrawn. 
19 



20 THE GATES OF KNOWLEDGE 

It receives no impressions through the 
senses. What, then, is it doing during 
sleep? 

We must realise clearly that in waking 
life the soul is in a state of constant 
activity. It takes in the impressions of 
the outer senses and works upon them: 
that is its occupation. This ceases during 
sleep, but the soul is not then idle. Asleep 
it works upon its own body. This is 
worn out by the activity of the day, 
which manifests itself in fatigue. And 
during sleep the soul occupies itself with 
its own body in order to prepare it for 
further waking work. We see by this 
how essential is good sleep for the main- 
tenance of bodily health. The man who 
does not sleep sufficiently, does not allow 
his soul to execute upon the body the 
needful work of repair; and the conse- 
quence of this must be the deterioration 



THE OCCULT FUNCTIONS OF SLEEP 21 

of the body. The forces with which the 
soul works upon the body in sleep are the 
same with which it acts during the waking 
state ; only in the latter case they are used 
to take in impressions from the outer 
senses and to work upon them. 

Now when Imaginative Cognition 
awakes in man, part of the force expended 
upon the body in sleep must be employed 
in another way. By these forces the 
spiritual sense-organs are formed, which 
enable the soul, not merely to exist in the 
higher worlds, but also to take cogni- 
sance in them. Thus the soul during 
sleep works no longer upon the body 
only, but also upon itself. This result is 
brought about by meditation and con- 
centration, and also by other exercises. 
It has already often been stated in my 
other books, giving the methods for the 
attainment of the Higher Knowledge, 



22 THE GATES OF KNOWLEDGE 

that the particular directions for these 
exercises are given only from man to man. 
No one should undertake such exercises 
on his own account. For only those who 
have experience of these things can judge 
what will be the result, in any individual, 
of withdrawing the activity of his soul 
from the body and applying it to a higher 
purpose. 

Meditation, Concentration, and other 
exercises, cause the soul to withdraw 
for a time from its connection with the 
sense-organs. It is then sunk in itself, 
and its activity is turned inwards. In the 
first stages of this detachment, its inner 
activity does not differ greatly from its 
daily work. The same representations, 
feelings, and sensations must be employed 
in the work within as during ordinary 
life. But the more it accustoms itself 
to be in a measure blind and deaf to its 



THE OCCULT FUNCTIONS OF SLEEP 23 

physical surroundings, the more it lives 
within itself, the more fit does it become 
for the inner achievements. And that 
which is accomplished by meditation first 
bears fruit in the condition of sleep. 
When the soul is freed from the body at 
night, that which has been quickened 
in it by the exercises of the day, con- 
tinues to work. Organs are formed in it, 
by which it can come into relation with 
its higher surroundings, in exactly the 
same way as it has already come into 
contact with the physical world through 
the outer organs of sense. Out of the 
darkness of the nocturnal environment 
come forth visions of light from the higher 
worlds. Subtle and intimate is this inter- 
course at first. 

It must always be borne in mind that 
for a long time to come the act of waking 
to the light of day will immediately draw 



24 THE GATES OF KNOWLEDGE 

a dense veil over the experiences of the 
night. The recollection of having per- 
ceived something during the night, only 
very slowly and gradually comes through. 
For the disciple does not easily learn to 
pay attention to the delicate images of his 
soul, which in the course of his develop- 
ment begin to mingle with the common 
events of every-day sense-life. 

At first, such images resemble what one 
calls the accidental impressions gathered 
by the soul. Everything depends upon 
his learning to distinguish what is due to 
the ordinary world from that which pre- 
sents itself through his own being as a 
manifestation from the higher worlds. 
In a quiet, introspective mental life, he 
must acquire this discernment. It is 
necessary that he should first develop a 
sense of the value and meaning of those 
intimate soul-images which, like chance 



THE OCCULT FUNCTIONS OF SLEEP 25 

impressions, mingle themselves with daily 
life, but which are really recollections of 
the nightly intercourse with a higher 
world. As soon as one grasps these 
images roughly and applies to them the 
standards of the sense-life, they vanish 
away. 

It is clear from what has been said that, 
owing to this work in a higher world, 
the soul must withdraw from the body 
part of the activity formerly bestowed 
upon it with such care. It leaves it, to 
a certain extent, alone. And the body 
needs a substitute for that which the soul 
did for it before. If it does not obtain 
such a substitute, it runs the risk of fall- 
ing a prey to maleficent powers. For we 
must clearly recognise that man is con- 
tinually exposed to the influences of his 
surroundings. In fact, he maintains life 
only through co-operation with his sur- 



26 THE GATES OF KNOWLEDGE 

roundings. Among these we must con- 
sider first the kingdom of visible Nature. 
Man himself belongs to this visible 
Nature. If there were no mineral, plant, 
and animal kingdoms, and no human 
beings around him, he could not live. If 
an individual could be imagined as cut 
off from the earth and lifted up into sur- 
rounding space, he must inevitably perish 
quickly as a physical being, just as the 
hand will perish if cut off from the body. 
The illusion of a hand that imagined that 
it could exist without the body would be 
no greater than that of a man who main- 
tained that he could live as a physical 
being without the mineral, vegetable, 
and animal kingdoms, and the rest of 
humanity. 

But besides the above-named kingdoms 
there are three others, which generally 
escape the notice of man. These are the 



THE OCCULT FUNCTIONS OP SLEEP 27 

three elemental kingdoms, which stand 
in a sense below the mineral kingdom. 
There are beings who do not condense 
into the mineral condition, but who are 
none the less present and exert their 
influence upon man. (Further informa- 
tion concerning these elemental kingdoms 
will be found in my Atlantis and Lemu- 
ria* and also in the remarks upon them in 
my Theosophy.) Man is thus exposed 
to influences from kingdoms of Nature 
which in a sense must be called invisible. 
Now when the soul works upon the body, 
a considerable part of its activity consists 
in regulating the influences of the elemen- 
tal kingdoms in such a way that they are 
beneficial to man. But the instant the 
soul withdraws part of its activity from 

1 The Submerged Continents of Atlantis and Lemur ia. 
Their History and Civilisation. By Rudolf Steiner, Ph.D. 
The Rajput Press, Chicago; Theosophical Publ., Soc. f 
London. 



28 THE GATES OF KNOWLEDGE 

the body, injurious powers from the 
elemental kingdoms may get hold of it. 
Herein lies one of the dangers of the 
higher evolution. Care must therefore 
be taken that the body is in itself acces- 
sible only to the good influences of the 
elemental world as soon as the soul is 
withdrawn from it. If this be dis- 
regarded, the ordinary man will be, to a 
certain extent, physically and morally 
injured, in spite of having gained access 
to the higher worlds. 

While the soul dwells in the higher 
regions, pernicious forces steal into the 
dense physical and etheric bodies. This 
is the reason why certain bad qualities, 
which, previous to this higher develop- 
ment, had been held in check by the 
regulating power of the soul, may now, 
for lack of such power, become apparent. 
Men who were formerly of good moral be- 



THE OCCULT FUNCTIONS OF SLEEP 29 

haviour may, under such circumstances, 
when they enter the higher worlds, reveal 
all kinds of low propensities, — extreme 
selfishness, untruthfulness, vindictiveness, 
wrath, etc. No one need be alarmed by 
this fact, or deterred from ascending into 
the higher worlds, but care must be taken 
to prevent the occurrence of such things. 
The lower nature of man must be forti- 
fied and made inaccessible to the danger- 
ous elemental influences. This can be 
brought about by the conscious cultiva- 
tion of certain virtues. These virtues 
are set forth in the theosophical hand- 
books dealing with spiritual develop- 
ment; and here we have the reason why 
they must be carefully sought after. 
They are the following: 

First of all, the pupil must deliberately, 
continually, and in all things, recognise 
the imperishable, the lasting; distinguish 



30 THE GATES OF KNOWLEDGE 

it from the perishable, and turn his atten- 
tion towards it. In all things and in all 
beings he may assume and discern some- 
thing which abides when the transitory 
appearance has vanished. If I see a 
plant, I can first observe it as it presents 
itself to the senses ; and this no one should 
neglect to do. For no one will be able to 
discover the permanent in objects, who 
has not first made himself thoroughly 
familiar with their perishable aspect. 
Those who are continually afraid that 
to fix their attention on the spiritual 
and eternal will cause them to lose the 
freshness and naturalness of life, do not 
yet understand of what we are really 
speaking. When I look at a plant in this 
way, it may become evident to me that 
there is in it a permanent life-impulse 
which will re-appear in a new form when 
the plant before me has long since crum- 



THE OCCULT FUNCTIONS OF SLEEP 31 

bled to dust. This attitude of mind 
towards things must become thoroughly- 
bound up with our nature. Then we 
must fix our hearts upon all that is wor- 
thy of esteem, and genuine, and learn 
to value it more highly than that which 
is fleeting and insignificant. In all our 
feelings and actions we must take into 
consideration the value of any one thing 
in relation to the whole. Thirdly, we 
must cultivate six qualities: control of 
thoughts, control of actions, endurance, 
impartiality, confidence in our surround- 
ings, and inner equilibrium. 

Control of the thought-world can be 
attained if we take the trouble to combat 
that wandering of the thoughts and feel- 
ings which tosses the ordinary man to 
and fro. In every-day life man is not 
the master of his thoughts: he is driven 
by them. And, as a matter of course, it 



32 THE GATES OF KNOWLEDGE 

cannot be otherwise; for life itself rules 
man and, as a worker, he must yield to 
the pressure of life. In ordinary life this 
must be so. But if man would rise into 
higher worlds, he must set apart at least 
certain short periods in which to make 
himself master of his world of thought 
and feeling. Then, with full inner free- 
dom, he sets a thought in the centre of 
his soul; whilst ordinarily, ideas were 
driven into it from without. Then he 
tries to keep at a distance all other 
thoughts and feelings, and to add nothing 
to the first thought except that which he 
admits of his own will. Such an exercise 
has a beneficial effect upon the soul, and 
through it, upon the body. It brings the 
latter into such a harmonious condition 
that it evades pernicious influences even 
when the soul is not directly working 
upon it. 



THE OCCULT FUNCTIONS OF SLEEP 33 

Control of actions consists in a similar 
regulation of these by inner freedom. A 
good beginning is made when we set our- 
selves to do regularly something which it 
would not have occurred to us to do in 
ordinary life. For in the latter, man is 
driven to action from without. But the 
smallest action which we undertake of our 
own innermost initiative, does more for 
us in the direction of which we are speak- 
ing than anything we may do through 
the pressure of life from without. Endur- 
ance consists in deliverance from those 
moods which may be described as alter- 
nating betweeen " exulting to the highest 
heaven* ' and " sorrowing even unto 
death.* ' Man is driven to and fro be- 
tween all kinds of moods. Pleasure 
makes him glad; pain depresses him. 
This finds its justification. But he who 
seeks the Path to the Higher Knowledge 



34 THE GATES OF KNOWLEDGE 

must be able to moderate both his joy 
and his sorrow. He must become stable. 
He must be able to restrain himself in the 
midst of pleasurable, as well as of painful 
experiences; he must carry himself with 
dignity through both. He must never 
be unmanned or disconcerted. This does 
not imply any lack of feeling; but only 
that the man has made for himself a fixed 
centre in the tide of life which ebbs and 
flows round about him. He has himself 
always well in hand. 

Another very important quality is the 
"instinct of affirmation." He will de- 
velop this for himself who notices in all 
things their good, beautiful, and service- 
able characteristics; not, in the first 
place, that which is blameworthy, ugly, 
perverse. There is a beautiful story 
among the Persian legends concerning 
Christ, which illustrates the meaning 



THE OCCULT FUNCTIONS OF SLEEP 35 

of this quality. A dead dog was lying 
in the road, and Christ was among the 
passers-by. All the others turned away 
from the ugly spectacle which the animal 
presented; but Christ paused to speak 
admiringly of its beautiful teeth. It is 
possible to see all things in this way ; and 
he who truly seeks will find even in the 
most repulsive object something worthy 
of appreciation. | The fruitful principle 
in everything is not what it lacks, but 
what it has. 

Further, it is important to cultivate 
the quality of " impartiality.' ' Every 
one has gained his own experiences, and 
has formed from them a definite number 
of opinions by which his life is regulated. 
And as it is self-evident on the one hand 
that conduct must be guided according 
to experience, it is no less important that 
he who would advance spiritually in the 



36 THE GATES OF KNOWLEDGE 

Higher Knowledge should preserve an 
unbiased mind towards everything new 
and unfamiliar that meets him on his way. 
He will be as cautious as possible with 
such comments as, "That is impossible," 
or, ' ' That cannot be. ' ' Whatever opinion 
he may have formed from previous expe- 
riences, he will be ready at any moment, 
when he encounters something new, to 
form a new opinion. All preference for 
his private opinion must be given up. 

When the five qualities already named 
have been acquired, a sixth will follow 
of itself, — namely, the inner equilibrium: 
the harmony of the spiritual forces. The 
pupil must find within himself a spiritual 
centre of gravity, to give him firmness 
and security amidst all that would draw 
him hither and thither in life. But he 
must not shrink from sharing the life 
around him and letting everything influ- 



THE OCCULT FUNCTIONS OF SLEEP 37 

ence him. Duty does not lie in flight 
from all the activities of life which draw 
us in every direction ; but rather, on the 
contrary, in fully giving oneself up to 
life, and yet at the same time guarding 
firmly and securely the inner harmony 
and equilibrium. 

Lastly, the seeker must put before him 
the "will towards liberation.' ' He has 
acquired it already, who finds within him- 
self the foundation and support of every- 
thing that he accomplishes. This is hard 
to attain, because it involves the main- 
tenance of perfect balance between the 
opening of the senses to everything great 
and good, and the simultaneous refusing 
of all compulsion. We say so lightly: 
"Freedom is incompatible with influence 
from without." That the two should be 
reconciled within the soul, — that is the 
essential thing. When a man tells me 



38 THE GATES OF KNOWLEDGE 

something and I accept it under the 
pressure of his authority, I am not free. 
But I am no more free if I close myself to 
the good which I might obtain in this 
way. For then the "less good" in my 
own soul acts as a constraint upon me. 

Liberation means, not only that I am 
free from the constraint of an outside 
authority, but above all that I am free 
from my own prejudices, opinions, sen- 
sations and emotions. And the right way 
to attain freedom is not through blind 
subjection to what is received, but by 
opening ourselves to the impulse from it, 
receiving it impartially, so that we may 
freely acquiesce in it. An outside author- 
ity should only influence us so far as to 
make us say: "I free myself by following 
what is good in this, and making it my 
own." An authority based upon Occult 
Wisdom will never work otherwise than 



THE OCCULT FUNCTIONS OF SLEEP 39 

in this way. It gives whatever it has to 
give, not in order itself to gain power over 
the recipient, but solely that he may 
become richer and freer through the gift. 
We have already dwelt upon the signi- 
ficance of these qualities when speaking 
of the "lotus-flowers." 1 Therein was 
shown their relation to the development 
of the twelve-petalled lotus-flower in the 
region of the heart, and to the currents of 
the etheric body connected with it. The 
purport of what has been already stated 
is that these qualities enable the seeker to 
dispense with those forces which formerly 
benefitted the physical body during sleep, 
and which now, because of his develop- 
ment, must be gradually withdrawn from 
that task. 

1 See Initiation and its Results. 



CHAPTER III 

THE PUPIL AND HIS TEACHER 

TT is impossible to make real progress in 
the task of penetrating to the higher 
worlds without going through the stage of 
Imaginative Knowledge. This, by no 
means implies that in the course of occult 
training a man is compelled to remain for 
a given time at the imaginative stage as 
if it were a class at school through which 
he is bound to pass. This may be neces- 
sary in certain cases, but not in all. It 
depends entirely upon the experience the 
occult student has had before beginning 
his training. It will be shown in the 
course of this analysis that the spiritual 

environment of the pupil is of import- 
40 



THE PUPIL AND HIS TEACHER 41 

ance with regard to this point, and, what 
is more, that, according to his relation- 
ship to this spiritual environment, very 
different methods have been instituted 
for treading the Path of Knowledge. 

An understanding of the following par- 
ticulars may be of the utmost importance 
to one who is preparing to enter the Path 
of occult training. These must not be 
regarded merely as presenting an inter- 
esting theory, but as something by which 
the most varied and practical points of 
view may be gained by anyone who is 
sincerely pursuing " the way to the Higher 
Knowledge.' ' 

Those who are seeking their higher 
evolution are often heard to say: "I wish 
to perfect myself spiritually; I wish to 
develop the 'Higher Self within me; but 
I have no desire for the manifestations of 
the astral world." This is understand- 



42 THE GATES OF KNOWLEDGE 

able enough when we read the descrip- 
tions of the astral world in books treating 
of such things, for apparitions and entities 
are spoken of in these which bring all sorts 
of dangers to men. It is often said that 
under the influence of such beings a man 
may very easily suffer injury both morally 
and intellectually. It is brought home to 
the reader that in these regions the wall 
dividing the good from the evil path is as 
a spider's web in thickness, and that the 
plunge into immeasurable depths, the fall 
into utter depravity, lies extremely near. 
It is impossible simply to contradict 
these assertions. Yet the standpoint 
taken in many cases, with regard to the 
treading of the occult Path, is by no 
means a right one. The only reasonable 
point of view is that which enables us to 
say that no one should be deterred from 
entering the Path of the Higher Know- 



THE PUPIL AND HIS TEACHER 43 

ledge because of the dangers incidental to 
it ; but that in every case great care must 
be taken that these dangers be avoided. It 
will, of course, in many cases follow that 
a man who asks advice from an occult 
teacher in the matter of training will be 
counselled to postpone the actual training 
for a while, and first to go through certain 
experiences of ordinary life, or to learn cer- 
tain things which are to be learned in the 
physical world. It will then be the task 
of the occult teacher to give the seeker 
the right instructions to enable him to 
gather suitable experience and learn the 
necessary things. 

In by far the greater number of cases, 
a student will find that the occult teacher 
proceeds in this way. And if the student 
now becomes sufficiently attentive to 
what befalls him, after he has come into 
contact with the occult teacher, he will 



44 THE GATES OF KNOWLEDGE 

make the most varied observations. He 
will find that henceforth curious things 
happen to him as if by accident, and that 
he has opportunities for observing occur- 
rences which would never have come to 
him without this link with the occult 
teacher. If students do not notice this, 
and become impatient, it is because they 
have not paid sufficient attention to what 
has happened to them. It is not to be 
imagined that the influence of the teacher 
upon the student will show itself in dis- 
tinctly visible works of magic. This 
influence is, on the contrary, a very inti- 
mate matter; and he who would explore 
its nature and form without having first 
reached a certain stage of occult training, 
is sure to fall into error. The student 
injures himself in every case in which he 
becomes impatient because he is placed 
on probation. His advance will be none 



THE PUPIL AND HIS TEACHER 45 

the less rapid on this account. On the 
contrary, his progress would be rendered 
slower if he were to begin too soon the 
training to which he so impatiently looks 
forward. 

If the student allows the time of pro- 
bation, or the counsels and hints given 
to him by the occult teacher, to influence 
him rightly, he will be actually preparing 
himself to withstand certain trials and 
dangers which he will encounter when he 
approaches the inevitable stage of Imagi- 
nation. This stage is unavoidable, for 
this reason : — Every one who seeks com- 
munication with the higher worlds with- 
out having passed through it, can only do 
so unconsciously, and is condemned when 
he reaches them to grope in the dark. 
One can acquire some dim sense of these 
higher worlds without Imagination; one 
can without it certainly attain to a feeling 



46 THE GATES OF KNOWLEDGE 

of being united with one's "God" or 
"Higher Self"; but one cannot come to a 
true knowledge in full consciousness and 
bright translucent clearness. Therefore, 
all that is said to the effect that the ex- 
positions regarding the "lower worlds" 
(the astral and devachanic) are useless, 
that the one thing needful is that man 
should "awaken the God within him," is 
entirely misleading. Whoever is satisfied 
with such standpoints should not be inter- 
fered with in his strivings, and no occult- 
ist would seek to do this. True Occultism 
has, however, nothing to do with such 
strivings* nor, on the other hand, does it 
invite anybody directly to become a 
pupil. But in him who craves the dis- 
cipline of the occultist, the latter will 
not only awaken in him a mere dim per- 
ception of his "divinity," but will also 
endeavour to open his spiritual eyes to 



THE PUPIL AND HIS TEACHER 47 

that which is actually existent in the 
higher worlds. 

Of course, the "Divine Self" exists in 
every human being, and not in man alone, 
but in every created thing. In stone, 
plant, and animal, the " Divine Self" is 
inherent and active. What is of impor- 
tance is not so much the general recogni- 
tion of this fact, but rather the actual 
entrance into union with the manifesta- 
tions of this "Divine Self." Just as a 
man knows nothing of the physical world 
so long as he can only repeat again and 
again: "This world contains the 'Divine 
Self veiled within it," — in like manner 
does he who seeks the "divine kingdoms 
of spirit" as vague and indefinite gener- 
alities know nothing of the higher worlds. 
We should open our eyes and behold the 
divine manifestation in the things of 
the physical world, in the stone and in 



48 THE GATES OF KNOWLEDGE 

the plant, and not indulge in dreams de- 
picting everything as mere " phenomena' ' 
behind which the real form of God lies 
concealed. No; God reveals Himself in 
His creations, and he who would know 
God must learn to know the true nature of 
these creations. 

Therefore must we also learn actually 
to behold what exists and happens in the 
higher worlds, if we would know the 
' ' Divine Nature. ' ' The consciousness 
that the " Divine Man" dwells within us 
can be at most but a beginning; but this 
consciousness experienced aright, becomes 
a spur to the definite ascent into the 
higher worlds. This can be truly ac- 
complished only when the necessary spirit- 
ual senses have been developed. Every 
other point of view is, merely: "I will 
remain as I am, and only attain to that 
which is within the reach of such powers 



THE PUPIL AND HIS TEACHER 49 

as I have developed already.' ' But the 
aim of the occultist is to become a differ- 
ent being in order to behold and expe- 
rience things of a different nature from 
those of ordinary life. 

And it is precisely for this purpose that 
the stage of Imaginative Knowledge 
must be experienced. It has already 
been said that this " imaginative" stage 
need not be looked upon as a class at 
school which one must pass through. 
What is to be understood is this: — There 
are, particularly in the present generation, 
many who have brought over with them 
such conditions as enable the occult 
teacher to call forth in them at the same 
time, or nearly so, imaginative, inspira- 
tional, and intuitive knowledge. But we 
are not to understand that in the case of 
any individual the passage through the 
imaginative stage may be dispensed with. 



50 THE GATES OF KNOWLEDGE 

The cause of the dangers inherent in 
Imaginative Knowledge has already been 
hinted at in previous chapters. It lies 
in the fact that on his entrance into super- 
physical worlds a man, in a certain sense, 
sees the ground vanish from under his 
feet. That which gave him security in 
the physical world has apparently quite 
disappeared. When we perceive any- 
thing in the physical world, we ask our- 
selves: Whence comes this perception? 
We do this in most cases unconsciously. 
But we are quite satisfied " uncon- 
sciously* ' that the causes of the percep- 
tion are the objects "outside us, in space." 
Colours, sounds, and odours proceed from 
these objects. We do not see colours 
floating about in space, or hear sounds, 
without being able to satisfy ourselves 
regarding the objects to which these 
colours pertain as qualities, and from 






THE PUPIL AND HIS TEACHER 51 

which these tones proceed. This con- 
sciousness, that they are caused by 
objects and entities, gives to physical 
perceptions, and thereby to man himself, 
a sense of security, a sure hold. If one 
has perceptions without any outward 
cause, they are considered abnormal and 
morbid. Such unaccountable percep- 
tions are called illusions, hallucinations, 
visions. 

Now primarily, from a purely external 
point of view, the whole imaginative 
world consists of such hallucinations, vis- 
ions, and illusions. It has been pointed 
out how, through occult training, such 
visions are artificially produced. 1 By 
focussing the consciousness on a seed or 
a dying plant, certain forms are conjured 
up in the soul, which, to begin with, are 
nothing but hallucinations. The "flame- 

T See The Way of Initiation. 



52 THE GATES OF KNOWLEDGE 

formation" which was spoken of as 
being produced in the soul through the 
observation of a plant or other object, and 
which after a time completely separates 
itself from the plant, must, from the 
material standpoint, be regarded as in 
the nature of hallucination. It is the 
same in the imaginative world when we 
enter upon occult training. That which 
we were accustomed to regard as pro- 
ceeding from things outside in space, — as 
clinging to such things as properties, 
colours, sounds, odours, and so forth, — 
now floats freely by itself in space. Per- 
ceptions detach themselves from all exter- 
nal objects and float or soar apart. And 
here we know for a certainty that these 
perceptions have not produced the things 
which we see before us, but that on the 
contrary, we "ourselves" have produced 
them. And so it comes about that one 



THE PUPIL AND HIS TEACHER 53 

seems to have "lost one's foothold.' ' In 
ordinary life, in the physical world, we 
have to be on our guard against those 
representations which do not proceed 
from objects, and which are, so to speak, 
without any foundation. But for the 
calling forth of Imaginative Knowledge, 
the important thing at first is to perceive 
colours, sounds, odours, etc., which, de- 
tached from everything, float freely in 
space. 

The next step towards Imaginative 
Knowledge is to find a new cause for such 
wandering conceptions. And this must 
be done in that other world which is about 
to be revealed. New objects and beings 
appropriate these representations. In the 
physical world, for instance, the colour 
"blue" clings to the cornflower, and 
similarly in the imaginative world it must 
cleave to something real. It rushes forth, 



54 THE GATES OF KNOWLEDGE 

as it were, towards some being, and where- 
as it floated unattached at first, it now 
becomes the expression of that being. 
Something speaks through it to the obser- 
ver, which he can only perceive in the 
imaginative world. And so these free 
floating pictures gather round a definite 
centre, and we know that beings are 
speaking to us through them. And, as 
in the physical world we find corporeal 
things and beings to which colours, 
sounds, odours, etc., are attached, or 
from which they are derived, we now 
discover spiritual beings who express 
themselves through those colours, tones, 
etc. These ''spiritual beings'' are, in 
fact, always present; they hover round 
us continually. But they cannot reveal 
themselves to us if we do not give them 
an opportunity to do so. And we can 
only give them this opportunity by evok- 



THE PUPIL AND HIS TEACHER 55 

ing within ourselves the capacity to call 
up colours, sounds, etc., in our soul, even 
when no physical object gives rise to 
them. 

Entirely different from the objects and 
entities of the physical world are the 
"spiritual facts and beings/ ' It is not 
easy to find in ordinary speech an expres- 
sion which even remotely describes this 
difference. Perhaps we may best ap- 
proach it by saying that in the imagina- 
tive world everything speaks to man as 
if it were directly intelligent; while in 
the physical world intelligence can only 
reveal itself indirectly through corpo- 
reality. It is just this that gives mobility 
and freedom to the imaginative world: 
The intermediary member, viz., the out- 
ward object, is absent, and the spiritual 
is able to live immediately in the free- 
flowing colours, sounds, and so on. 



56 THE GATES OF KNOWLEDGE 

Now one of the dangers that threatens 
man in this world lies in the fact that he 
perceives these manifestations of "spirit- 
ual beings/ ' but not the beings them- 
selves. This at least is the case so long 
as he remains in the imaginative world 
only and does not ascend to a higher one. 
It is Inspiration and Intuition which lead 
him by degrees to the beings themselves. 
If, however, the occult teacher should 
awaken these prematurely, without hav- 
ing thoroughly acquainted the pupil with 
the t realm of imagination, the higher 
world would have for him only a shadowy 
and phantasmal existence. The whole 
glorious fullness of the pictures in which 
it must reveal itself when he really enters 
it, would be lost. In this lies the reason 
why the occult student needs a " Guide,'* 
or "Guru," as this guide is' called in 
Occult Science. 



THE PUPIL AND HIS TEACHER 57 

For the pupil, the imaginative world is 
at first only a world of pictures, of which, 
to a great extent, he does not know the 
meaning. But the "Guru" knows to 
what things and beings these pictures are 
related in the higher world. If the pupil 
has confidence in him he will know that 
connecting links, which for the present 
he cannot discern, will reveal themselves 
to him later. In the physical world, the 
objects in space were themselves his 
guides. He was in a position to prove 
the accuracy of his ideas. The corporeal 
reality is the "rock" upon which all 
hallucinations and illusions must be shat- 
tered. This rock disappears, as soon as we 
enter the imaginative world. Therefore 
the "Guru" must himself become its 
substitute. The Teacher must realise 
for his pupil the actuality of the new 
world. From this we may estimate how 



58 THE GATES OF KNOWLEDGE 

great must be the pupil's confidence in 
the Guru in any occult training worthy 
of the name. As soon as he can no longer 
believe in the Guru, it is as though in the 
physical world he were suddenly deprived 
of everything on which he had built his 
faith in the reality of his perceptions. 

Apart from this, there is yet another 
difficulty which may confuse the pupil, 
if he seeks to enter the imaginative world 
without the guidance of a Teacher. For 
the occult student has, first and foremost, 
to learn to know himself as distinct from 
all other spiritual beings. In physical 
life a man has feelings, desires, longings, 
passions, ideas, etc., of his own. These 
are, indeed, all caused by the things and 
beings of the outer world, but the man 
knows quite definitely that they make 
up his inner world, and he recognises 
them as something happening within his 



THE PUPIL AND HIS TEACHER 59 

soul, distinct from the objects of the world 
outside, 

But as soon as the imaginative sense is 
awakened, this facility of distinction com- 
pletely ceases. His own feelings, ideas, 
passions, etc., literally step outside him, 
and take on form, sound, and colour. His 
attitude with regard to them is now the 
same as it is with reference to absolutely 
strange objects and beings in the physical 
world. And it is easy to understand how 
complete the confusion may be when we 
remember what has been said on this 
point in a previous chapter, the whole of 
which was occupied in describing how 
the imaginative world presents itself to 
the observer. For there everything ap- 
pears reversed as in a mirror. That 
which goes forth from the man himself 
appears as if it were approaching him 
from without. A wish which he fosters 



60 THE GATES OF KNOWLEDGE 

changes into a form, into that of some 
fantastic-looking animal, for instance, or 
perhaps into the appearance of a human 
entity. This seems to assail him, to make 
an attack on him, or to cause him to do 
one thing or another. So it may come 
about that the man appears to himself as 
if surrounded by a wholly fantastic, often 
charming and seductive, but also often 
horrible, world of fluttering forms. 

In reality these are nothing but his 
own thoughts, wishes, and passions, 
changed into pictures which he sees. It 
would be a great mistake to suppose that 
it is easy to distinguish these pictures 
of the transformed self from the true 
spiritual world. At first it is absolutely 
impossible for the pupil to make this dis- 
tinction. For the picture which speaks 
to the man may be exactly the same, 
whether it springs from some spiritual 



THE PUPIL AND HIS TEACHER 61 

being or from something within his own 
soul. And if a man hurries his develop- 
ment unduly at this point, there is a 
danger that he may never rightly learn 
to separate the two. It is imperative in 
this matter that he should exercise the 
greatest care. 

The confusion is rendered still greater 
by the fact that the wishes and desires 
of his own soul clothe themselves in 
images conveying an absolutely contrary 
character to that which they really bear. 
Let us suppose, for instance, that Vanity 
comes before us as a picture in this man- 
ner: it may appear perhaps as a lovely 
figure, promising the most wonderful 
things if we execute its behests. The 
suggestions it makes appear to promise 
something altogether good and desirable; 
if we follow them it will bring about our 
ruin, moral or otherwise. Conversely, 



62 THE GATES OF KNOWLEDGE 

a good quality of the soul can veil itself 
in unprepossessing garb. Only to him 
who truly knows is it possible to distin- 
guish the one from the other. Only a 
personality who cannot be made to falter 
in pursuit of a right aim is secure against 
the seductive power of his own soul- 
images. 

Having regard to all this, it will readily 
be seen how necessary is the guidance of 
a Teacher who, with unerring judgment, 
draws his pupil's attention both to the 
illusions and realities in this region. But 
we need not suppose that the Guru must 
always stand, as it were, behind the pupil. 
The immediate presence of the Teacher 
is not the most important matter for 
the occult student. Of course there are 
moments when such "being together in 
space* ' is desirable, and even when it is 
absolutely necessary. But on the other 



THE PUPIL AND HIS TEACHER 63 

hand, the occult Teacher finds means 
of remaining in touch with the pupil 
even when separated by distance. And 
besides, it must be observed that much 
of what passes between Teacher and pupil 
when they meet may be effectual often 
for months and probably for years after- 
wards. One thing there is, however, which 
will break this necessary link between 
Teacher and pupil without fail. This 
happens when the latter loses confidence 
in his Teacher. And it is especially un- 
fortunate if this bond of confidence is 
broken before the pupil has learned to 
distinguish between the delusive reflec- 
tions of his own soul and true reality. 

It may here, perhaps, be said: "Yes, 
but if a tie is formed with the Guru in this 
way, the occult student loses all freedom 
and independence. He gives himself, so 
to speak, entirely into the hands of the 



64 THE GATES OP KNOWLEDGE 

Guru." This, however, is not the case. 
There is certainly a difference among the 
various methods of occult training in 
respect of this dependence on the Guru. 
The dependence may be greater or less. It 
is relatively greatest in the methods fol- 
lowed by Oriental occultists, and taught 
by them even to-day as their own. This 
dependence is proportionately less in the 
so-called Christian Initiation; and, in 
reality, it is completely in abeyance on 
that Path of Knowledge which has been 
known since the fourteenth century as the 
Rosicrucian School of Occultism. In this 
the Guru can by no means be abolished, — ■ 
that is impossible; but the entire depend- 
ence on him ceases. How this is prac- 
ticable will be shown in the following 
chapters. Therein we shall explain pre- 
cisely how these three "Paths of Know- 
ledge' ' differ, — the Oriental, the Christian, 



THE PUPIL AND HIS TEACHER 65 

and the Rosicrucian. In this last there is 
nothing which could interfere in any way 
with a modern man's sense of freedom. 
It will also be seen how it may happen 
that one person or another as an occult 
student, even to-day in modern Europe, 
may follow, not the Rosicrucian, but the 
Oriental Path, or the early Christian; 
though, for the present time, the Rosi- 
crucian is the most natural. And this 
way, as will presently be seen, is by no 
means non-Christian. A man may follow 
this Path without endangering his Christ- 
ianity; and he, too, may follow it who 
believes himself to have adopted that 
theory of the world which is identified 
with modern science. 

One other point, perhaps, needs to be 
cleared up. We may feel tempted to ask 
whether the occult student might not be 
spared the experience of the delusive 






66 THE GATES OF KNOWLEDGE 

reflections of his own soul. But if this 
happened he would never attain to the 
independent discernment so desirable for 
him. For by no other means can the 
peculiar nature of the imaginative world 
be so well realised as by the observation 
of one's own soul. At first a man knows 
the inner life of his soul only from one 
side, — that he begins by being within it. 
And this is just what the pupil has to 
learn, not only to look at things from out- 
side, but to observe them as if he himself 
were within all of them. Now, if his own 
thought-world comes upon him as some- 
thing strange, he learns to know a new 
aspect of that of which formerly he knew 
but one side. He must, in a certain sense, 
himself serve as the first example of this 
mode of Knowledge. 

Here in the physical world he is accus- 
tomed to something quite different. Here 



THE PUPIL AND HIS TEACHER 67 

he looks upon all things from without; 
himself alone he knows only from within. 
So long as he remains in the physical 
world he can never see below the surface 
of things; and he can never get outside 
himself, — "slip out of his skin," as it were 
■ — in order to observe himself from with- 
out. And this is literally incumbent upon 
him before all else in occult training; by 
the help of this he learns to look beneath 
the surface of external facts and beings. 



CHAPTER IV 

INSPIRATION 

T^HE description of the power of Imag- 
ination has shown us how the occult 
student, by its means, leaves the region of 
outer sense-experiences. This is the case 
in a much higher degree with Inspiration. 
Here ideas are much less dependent upon 
what may be called an outside stimulus. 
The individual must find within himself 
the power which enables him to form 
ideas concerning things. He must be 
inwardly active to a far greater extent 
than is the case with regard to outer 
knowledge. For the latter he simply 
yields himself to impressions from with- 
out, and these give rise to ideas within 

68 






INSPIRATION 69 

him. This kind of surrender ceases when 
we come to Inspiration. Henceforward 
the eye does not supply colours, the ear 
sounds, and so forth. The whole content 
of ideas must, in a sense, be produced by 
individual activity, and by purely spirit- 
ual and psychic processes. And the 
manifestation of the higher, the real world 
must be impressed upon what the man 
has created by his inner activity. 

A peculiar contradiction seems to be 
involved in such a description of the 
world of higher cognition. The indi- 
vidual must, in a certain sense, be the 
creator of his own ideas; yet obviously 
his ideas should not be solely of his own 
creation, but the processes of the higher 
worlds should be expressed through them, 
just as the events of the lower world are 
expressed through the perceptions of the 
eyes, ears, and other organs. 



70 THE GATES OF KNOWLEDGE 

Such a contradiction is, however, inevi- 
table in any description of this mode of 
cognition. For this is exactly what the 
occult student must achieve on the path 
of Inspiration: he must attain by his 
inner activity to something to which in 
ordinary life he is compelled from with- 
out. Why do not the images of ordinary 
life take an arbitrary course? Because 
the individual has to correct his attitude 
towards outward objects by means of 
the ideas they give him. All choice on the 
part of the ego is suppressed because the 
objects say: We are thus, or thus. The 
objects themselves decide how they shall 
be understood ; the ego has nothing to say 
in the matter. The man who will not 
adjust himself to the objects, misunder- 
stands them and will soon be made to feel 
how little success he has had in the world. 
This necessary attitude of the individual 



INSPIRATION 71 

to the things of the outer world may be 
designated in cognition as " self -less.' ' 
The individual must maintain a selfless 
attitude towards things; and the outer 
world is his instructor in this selflessness. 
It deprives him of all illusions, fancies, 
and illogical opinions, and of everything 
non-essential, by simply putting the cor- 
rect image before his senses. 

If any man would prepare himself for 
Inspiration, he must first develop his 
inner nature to such a point that this 
selflessness is natural to him, even when 
uncompelled from without. He must 
learn to create inwardly, but in such a 
way that the ego plays no arbitrary part 
in this creation. The difficulties which 
have to be taken into account in attain- 
ing such a degree of selflessness, become 
more apparent the more we consider 
what powers of the soul are specially 



72 THE GATES OF KNOWLEDGE 

required for Inspiration. We recognise 
three fundamental powers in the life of 
the soul, — Idea, Feeling, and Will. In 
ordinary cognition by the senses, ideas 
are induced by outward objects; and 
these externally-stimulated ideas will de- 
termine the direction taken by feeling 
and will. 

For instance, a man sees an object 
which gives him pleasure and he begins 
to long for the thing in question. Plea- 
sure is rooted in feeling and through feel- 
ing the will is roused, just as feeling was 
awakened by the image of the thing. But 
the external object is the ultimate cause 
of the image, the feeling, and the will. 
Take another instance. A man sees an 
occurrence which frightens him. He 
rushes away from the scene of the event. 
Here, too, the outward incidents are the 
primary cause; they are perceived by 



INSPIRATION 73 

means of the senses; images are formed; 
they give rise to ideas; the feeling of 
alarm springs up; and Will — expressing 
itself in running away — is the result. In 
Inspiration there is no longer an outward 
object of this kind. The senses are no 
longer needed in order to perceive. There- 
fore they cannot be the cause of ideas. 
From this side no influence is exercised 
upon feeling and will. Yet it is precisely 
from these two, as from their native soil, 
that in the Inspirational mode ideas 
spring up inwardly, and, so to speak, 
grow. And if the native soil is healthy, 
the ideas that spring up will be true; 
if unhealthy, they will be errors and 
illusions. 

As certainly as Inspirations, rooted in 
healthy feeling and will, may be a revela- 
tion from a higher world, so certainly do 
mistakes, delusions, and errors concern- 



74 THE GATES OF KNOWLEDGE 

ing a higher world, spring from disorderly 
feeling and will. 

On this account occult training sets 
itself the task of pointing out the way by 
which a man may make his feelings and 
the impulses of his will healthily produc- 
tive for Inspiration. As in all matters of 
occult training, we have here to deal with 
the intimate regulation and fashioning of 
the life of the soul. First of all the stu- 
dent must develop certain feelings which 
are very little known in ordinary life. 
Some of these feelings may here be indi- 
cated. One of the most important con- 
sists in an increased sensitiveness with 
regard to the "true" and " false," and 
the " right" and "wrong." It is quite 
true that the ordinary person has similar 
feelings. But they must be cultivated 
by the occult student to a very much 
higher degree. 






INSPIRATION 75 

Let us suppose that a logical error has 
been made by some one. Another sees 
the mistake and puts the matter right. 
Let us realise how large a part is played 
by the judgment and understanding in 
such a correction, and how slight is the 
feeling of pleasure at what is true and 
repugnance to what is false. Observe 
that we are not by any means maintain- 
ing that the pleasure and corresponding 
repugnance are not there. But the degree 
in which they are present in ordinary life 
must be immeasurably raised in occult 
training. The student must direct his 
attention quite systematically to the life 
of his soul ; and he must carry this training 
to such a point that a logical error is a 
source of pain to him, in no way falling 
short of physical pain; and on the other 
hand what is " right' ' must afford him 
real joy and pleasure. 



76 THE GATES OF KNOWLEDGE 

Thus, where another only brings his 
judgment and understanding into play, 
the occult student must learn to live 
through the whole gamut of emotions, 
from grief to enthusiasm, and from pain- 
ful suspense to transports of delight in the 
possession of truth. In fact, he must learn 
to feel something like hatred for what 
the "normal" man looks upon coldly and 
dispassionately as ' ' incorrect. ' ' He must 
develop such a love of truth as bears quite 
a personal character, — as personal and 
as warm as that which the lover feels for 
the beloved. 

We hear, indeed, a great deal in our 
* ' cultured ' ' circles about the love of truth ; 
but what is meant by this is not to be 
compared with what the occult student 
must attain in this direction through quiet 
inward work in his soul. As a test, he 
must continually and patiently put before 



INSPIRATION 77 

him this or that "true" thing and this or 
that " false " one, and concentrate upon it, 
not merely for the sake of training his 
judgment to distinguish dispassionately 
between "true" and "false," but in order 
to acquire a completely personal relation 
to it all. There is no doubt that at the 
beginning of such training the student 
may fall into what may be called over- 
sensitiveness. An erroneous opinion 
uttered in his hearing, an inconsistency, 
etc., may cause him almost intolerable 
pain. 

Care must therefore be taken during 
training with regard to this matter; 
otherwise there would be great danger to 
the psychic equilibrium. If care is taken 
that the character be steadfast, storms 
may occur in the life of the soul and yet 
the man may have the power to conduct 
himself harmoniously towards the outer 



78 THE GATES OF KNOWLEDGE 

world. It is a mistake in this respect to 
allow the occult student to be brought 
into opposition to the outer world, so 
that he finds it unbearable, or even wishes 
to flee from it. The higher world of feel- 
ing should not be cultivated at the expense 
of well-balanced work and activity in the 
outer world; therefore a strengthening of 
the power of resistance to outward im- 
pressions must counterbalance the inward 
elevation of the life of feeling. 

Practical occult training directs the 
student never to undertake the above- 
mentioned exercises for developing the 
realm of feeling without at the same time 
schooling himself in such a way that he 
will learn what life demands from men in 
the way of toleration. He must be able 
to feel the keenest pain if a person gives 
utterance to an erroneous opinion, and yet 
at the same time be perfectly tolerant 



INSPIRATION 79 

towards this person, because the thought 
in his mind is equally clear, that "this 
person is bound to judge in this way, and 
his opinion must be reckoned with as a 
fact." 

It is, of course, true that the inner 
nature of the occult scientist comes to be 
more and more involved in a double life. 
Ever richer experiences are lived through 
in his soul in the course of his pilgrimage 
through life, and the other world grad- 
ally becomes more and more independent 
of what this outer world has to give. 
And it is just this double existence that 
will be most fruitful in the genuine prac- 
tice of life. What results from it is swift- 
ness of judgment and unerring certainty 
of decision. While one who is a strang- 
er to such schooling must go through 
long trains of thought and be driven 
backwards and forwards between reso- 



8o THE GATES OF KNOWLEDGE 

lution and perplexity, the occult scientist 
will swiftly review the conditions of life 
and discern hidden relations not seen by 
the ordinary gaze. Often he needs much 
patience in order to enter into the lengthy 
methods by which something is made 
clear to another person, while his own 
comprehension is swift as an arrow. 

Hitherto we have spoken only of the 
qualities which must be developed in the 
life of feeling in order that Inspiration 
may begin in the right way. The next 
question is : — How do the feelings become 
productive, so as to bring forth true ideas 
belonging to the world of Inspiration? 
If a man desires to know what answer 
Occult Science gives to this question, he 
must be made acquainted with the fact 
that the soul-life of man has always a cer- 
tain store of feelings over and above those 
that are aroused by sense-perceptions. 



INSPIRATION 81 

The individual feels far more than any- 
thing compels him to feel. But in ordi- 
nary life this excess of feeling is turned in 
a direction which occult training must 
change for another. 

Take, for instance, a feeling of fear or 
anxiety. In many cases it is quite easy 
to see that the fear or anxiety is greater 
than it would be if it were in true propor- 
tion to the corresponding outward event. 
Let us imagine that the student is work- 
ing energetically on himself with the 
object that he may not in any case feel 
more fear and anxiety than is justified by 
an outward event. Now a given amount 
of fear or anxiety always involves an ex- 
penditure of psychic force. This force is 
actually lost when fear or anxiety is pro- 
duced. The student really saves this force 
when he denies himself fear, anxiety, or 
other wasteful feelings. And it remains 



82 THE GATES OF KNOWLEDGE 

at his disposal for some other purpose. 
If he repeats the process often he will 
acquire an inner store of this continually- 
husbanded psychic force; and he will 
soon find that out of such economies of 
feeling will spring the germs of those 
ideas which will give utterance to the 
revelations of the higher life. Such 
things cannot in the ordinary sense be 
" proved"; one can only give the occult 
student advice to do this or that, and if 
he carries out the instructions he will 
presently see the indubitable results. 

From a casual view of what has just 
been described, it might easily appear 
self-contradictory to say that on the one 
hand an enrichment of the world of feel- 
ing is necessary, — since feelings of pleas- 
ure or pain are to be excited by what 
otherwise arouses only intellectual judg- 
ment, — and that on the other hand it is 



INSPIRATION 83 

economy of feeling that is spoken of. 
This contradiction at once disappears 
if it is borne in mind that the saving 
should be made in those feelings which 
are aroused by the outer senses. What- 
ever is saved in that direction serves as 
an enrichment in the matter of spiritual 
experiences. And it is altogether just 
that the feelings thus economised in the 
sense-world of perception should not only 
be set free in another sphere, but should 
prove creative in that sphere. They 
provide the material for those ideas by 
which the spiritual world is revealed. 

Of course it would not be going very 
far if we were to remain content with 
only such economies as have been indica- 
ted. Much more is necessary if great 
results are to be attained. A larger store 
of the force which begets feeling must be 
conveyed to the soul than is possible by 



84 THE GATES OF KNOWLEDGE 

this means alone. For instance, we must, 
as a test, submit ourselves to certain 
outward impressions and then wholly 
deny ourselves the feelings which would 
arise in a so-called "normal" condition. 
We must confront an occurrence which 
"normally" stimulates the soul, and 
absolutely forbid ourselves to be excited 
by it. This can be done either by actu- 
ally experiencing such an event, or by 
experiencing it only in the imagination. 
The latter process is even better for an 
occult training that is to bear fruit. 

As the student is initiated into the 
power of imagination, either before his 
preparation for the inspirational mode 
or simultaneously with it, he should 
actually be in a position to represent an 
occurrence to his mind as powerfully as 
if it were taking place before him. If, 
therefore, by long inward labour the 



INSPIRATION 85 

student subjects himself more and more 
to the influence of objects and events and 
yet denies himself the normal feelings 
corresponding to them, the ground will 
be prepared for Inspiration in his soul. 
Let it be incidentally noted here that he 
who is describing such a training for 
Inspiration has the fullest justification 
for it, though many objections might be 
made to his account of it from the point 
of view of our present-day culture. And 
not only can objections be made, but 
people may smile in a superior way and 
say: "But Inspiration cannot be pedanti- 
cally taught ; it is a natural gift of genius." 
Yes, it may certainly seem almost 
laughable, from the standpoint of modern 
culture, to discuss so fully a development 
which that culture will not admit to be 
capable of explanation; but such culture 
does not realise how little it is able to pur- 



86 THE GATES OF KNOWLEDGE 

sue to their logical ends its own processes 
of thought. Any one who required a dis- 
ciple of this culture to believe that some 
more highly developed animal had not 
slowly evolved, but had appeared sud- 
denly, would speedily be told that no cul- 
tured person in the modern sense of the 
term could believe such a miracle. Such 
a belief would be " superstition.' ' Yet 
such a person is the victim of gross super- 
stition in matters of spiritual life, even 
according to his own way of thinking. 
That is to say, he will not allow that a 
more perfected soul must also have 
evolved slowly, — that it could not have 
arisen suddenly as a gift of nature. Of 
course, externally, many a genius appears 
to have been born suddenly "out of 
no where* ' in some mysterious way; but it 
only appears so on account of material- 
istic superstition; the occult scientist 



INSPIRATION 87 

knows that the condition of genius, which 
arises in a man's life as if out of nothing, 
is simply the result of his training on 
inspirational lines during a former life 
on earth. 

Materialistic superstition is bad enough 
on theoretical ground; but it is far worse 
in a practical region such as this. As it 
assumes that in all ages genius must "fall 
from heaven," it will have nothing to say 
to any "occult nonsense" or "fantastic 
mysticism" as a preparation for Inspira- 
tion. In this way the superstition of the 
materialist retards the real progress of 
humanity. He does not trouble himself 
about the latent faculties evolving in man. 
In reality it is often precisely those who 
call themselves progressives and liberal 
thinkers who are the enemies of real for- 
ward development. But this, as already 
said, is only an incidental comment, 



88 THE GATES OF KNOWLEDGE 

necessary with regard to the relationship 
of Occult Science to present-day culture. 

Now the soul powers which are stored 
up in the student's inner nature by the 
self-denial of the normal feelings indicated 
above, would undoubtedly be transmuted 
into Inspiration even if no further aid 
were given them. And in the soul of the 
occult student there would arise true 
images of events taking place in the 
higher worlds. Progress would begin 
with the simplest experiences of super- 
sensible events, followed gradually by 
those of a higher and more complicated 
aspect, if the student continued to live 
inwardly in the prescribed way. 

But, as a matter of fact, such occult 
training would be quite impracticable 
to-day, and when a man has set himself 
seriously to work it is never carried 
through to its conclusion. That is to say, 



INSPIRATION 89 

if the student wished to develop out of 
his inner nature everything that Inspira- 
tion can give, he could undoubtedly 
"spin out" from within himself every- 
thing, for example, that has been said in 
my other works about the nature of man, 
the life after death, the evolution of 
humanity and of the planets, and so 
forth. But such a student would need 
an immeasurably long time for all this. 
It would be as if a man should wish to 
weave the whole of geometry out of him- 
self, without regard to what has already 
been achieved in that field before him. 
Certainly in theory it is quite possible 
for him to do so; but to carry it out in 
practice would be folly. Nor is this the 
method of Occult Science; — the facts 
which have been won for humanity by 
inspired predecessors have been handed 
down through a teacher. Such tradi- 



90 THE GATES OF KNOWLEDGE 

tion must in fact furnish the basis for 
individual Inspiration. 

That which is being given out to-day in 
lectures and writings from the domain of 
Occult Science may well furnish such a 
basis for Inspiration. There is, for in- 
stance, the teaching about the various 
component parts of man (physical body, 
etheric body, astral body, etc.), the 
knowledge concerning life after death 
until a new incarnation, and much else 
which has been published under the title, 
"From The Akashic Records" (see 
Atlantis and Lemuria). That is to say, 
we must clearly grasp the fact that 
Inspiration is needed for the discovery 
and experience of the higher truths, 
but not for the understanding of them. 
What has been communicated in Atlan- 
tis and Lemuria could not at first be dis- 
covered without Inspiration. But when 



INSPIRATION 91 

once communicated it can be understood 
by the ordinary reasoning faculty. No 
one should assert that facts are there 
stated which cannot be logically under- 
stood without Inspiration. People do 
not find them incomprehensible because 
they themselves are not inspired, but 
because they will not think enough about 
them. 

Further, when a man receives the 
truths so communicated, they awaken 
Inspiration in his soul by their own power. 
If we wish to participate in such Inspira- 
tion, we must not merely receive the 
knowledge in a logical and matter-of-fact 
way, but must lay ourselves open to be 
carried by the flight of ideas into all kinds 
of emotional experiences. And why 
should not this be possible? Can the feel- 
ings remain passive when there passes 
before the spirit's gaze the overpowering 



92 THE GATES OF KNOWLEDGE 

process of the development of the earth 
from the Moon, Sun, and Saturn? or 
when the infinite depths of human nature 
are penetrated by the knowledge of man's 
etheric, astral, and yet subtler bodies? 
We might almost say it is ill with him 
who can contemplate unmoved such 
structures of thought. For if he no 
longer regarded them dispassionately, 
but experienced all the tension and relax- 
ation of feeling, all the climaxes and 
crises, all the advances and retreats, all 
the catastrophes and dispensations which 
they render possible, then indeed the 
ground would be prepared for Inspiration 
in his soul. True, the necessary emotional 
life corresponding with such communica- 
tions from a higher world can only be 
fully unfolded by exercises of the kind 
indicated above. 

Reports of such a world will appear 



INSPIRATION 93 

but arid notions and dull theories to one 
who directs all his emotional forces 
towards the outer world of sense. He 
will never be able to understand why the 
heart of another man is warmed by the 
hearing of what is imparted by Occult 
Science while his own inmost being 
remains cold. He will even say: " But 
all that is for the intellect and reason; 
I want something for my emotional 
nature.' ' He does not say to himself 
that it is his own fault if his heart remains 
cold. 

Many people still undervalue the power 
of what lies hidden in these communica- 
tions which can come only from a higher 
world. And in this connection they over- 
rate all kinds of other exercises and prac- 
tices. ' ' Of what use is it to me, ' ' they say, 
"to hear from others what the higher 
worlds look like? I want to look into them 



94 THE GATES OF KNOWLEDGE 

for myself.' ' Such persons, for the most 
part, lack the patience to concentrate 
themselves again and again upon such re- 
ports from higher worlds. If they did so, 
they would see what kindling force lies 
in these bare reports, and how one's own 
Inspiration may be awakened by hearing 
an account of the Inspiration of others. 

It is true that other exercises must 
supplement mere learning if the student 
wishes to make rapid progress in the ex- 
perience of the higher worlds; but no 
one should underestimate the very great 
importance of such learning. And in any 
case, no hope can be held out of making 
rapid conquests in the higher worlds by 
any exercises whatever, unless the student 
resolves at the same time unremittingly 
to ponder over the communications 
which have been given, in their proper 
order, from a competent source, as to 



INSPIRATION 95 

the events and beings of the higher 
worlds. 

Now that such communications are 
being made in lectures, literature, etc., 
and the first indications are also being 
given as to the exercises leading to 
knowledge of the higher worlds (as, for 
instance, in my book, The Way of Initi- 
ation) ,< it has become possible to learn 
something of what formerly was im- 
parted only in strictly guarded occult 
schools. As has already been said, it is 
owing to the special conditions of our 
time that these things are and must be 
published. But we must once more em- 
phasise this point, — that although facili- 
ties have been given for the acquisition 
of occult knowledge, trustworthy guid- 
ance by an experienced occult teacher 
is not at present to be dispensed with. 

The Inspirational mode of Knowledge 



96 THE GATES OF KNOWLEDGE 

leads to the actual experience of processes 
in the invisible worlds, — as, for instance, 
the evolution of man and of the earth 
and its former embodiments ("Moon," 
"Sun," and "Saturn"). But when in 
these higher worlds not only processes 
but beings have to be taken into account, 
then the Intuitional mode of Knowledge 
must enter in. That which occurs 
through the agency of such beings is dis- 
cerned by Imagination as in a picture; 
laws and conditions are discerned by 
Inspiration; but if the beings themselves 
are to be approached, Intuition is needed. 
We shall speak later of the way in 
which Inspiration is organised in the 
world of Imagination, — how it penetrates 
that world as a spiritual music and there- 
by becomes a means of expression to the 
beings who are to be recognised by Intui- 
tion. Intuition itself will also then be 



INSPIRATION 97 

treated of. We would only point out 
here that what is known in Occult Science 
as " Intuition' ' has nothing to do with 
what often receives that name in popular 
speech. A more or less uncertain notion 
is there put in contradistinction to a 
clear understanding logically arrived at 
through the intellect. Intuition in Occult 
Science is nothing vague or uncertain, 
but a lofty method of cognition, full 
of the most luminous clearness and indu- 
bitable certainty. 



CHAPTER V 

INSPIRATION AND INTUITION 

|*UST as Imagination may be called 

spiritual seeing, so may Inspiration 

be called spiritual Jiearing. We must of 

course be quite clear in our minds that 

by the expression " hearing' ' is signified a 

form of perception as far removed from 

sense-hearing in the physical world, as 

11 sight " in the imaginative or astral world 

is from seeing with the physical eyes. 

We may say of the light and colour 

phenomena of the astral world that they 

are as if the luminous surfaces and colours 

of sense-objects stood out from these 

objects, and, detached from them, floated 
98 



INSPIRATION AND INTUITION 99 

freely in space. But this gives only an 
approximate idea; for " space* ' in the 
imaginative world is by no means the 
same as in the physical. Therefore it is 
a mistake to believe that we are seeing 
colour-pictures made by the imaginative 
faculty when we are observing only 
detached specks of colour floating in ordi- 
nary space. Nevertheless the building 
of such colour-images is the way to the 
imaginative life. 

Anyone who tries to picture to himself 
a flower, and then reject from the image 
everything that is not colour, so that a 
picture as of the detached colour-surface 
of the flower floats before his mind, may 
gradually acquire the imaginative faculty 
by means of such exercises. This is not 
in itself the imaginative picture, but is a 
more or less preparatory fantasy-picture. 
Imagination — that is, genuine astral ex- 



ioo THE GATES OF KNOWLEDGE 

perience — does not come until not only is 
colour detached from sense-impression, 
but three-dimensional space has com- 
pletely disappeared. That this has hap- 
pened, can be realised only by a certain 
kind of feeling, which is best described 
by saying that one no longer feels ''out- 
side" but ''inside" the colour-image, and 
has the consciousness of taking part in its 
genesis. If this feeling is absent, if we 
seem to be looking at the thing as we look 
at a physical colour-picture, then we are 
not yet dealing with genuine Imagination, 
but with something purely fanciful. 

But it must not be said that such fancy 
pictures are altogether worthless. They 
may, for instance, be etheric images, — 
shadows, as it were, of genuine astral 
facts; and as such they have value in 
occult training. They may form a bridge 
to genuine astral imaginative experiences, 



INSPIRATION AND INTUITION 101 

but they involve a certain amount of 
danger to the observer on this borderland 
between the senses and the sensible, unless 
he brings sound judgment fully into play. 
It is not to be expected that an unfailing 
test can be given to every one, whereby 
he may distinguish reality from illusions, 
hallucinations, and fancies on this bor- 
derland. Such a general rule would cer- 
tainly be convenient, but convenience is 
a word which the occult student should 
expunge from his vocabulary. 

It can only be said that he who wishes 
to acquire clear discrimination in this 
sphere must in the first place cultivate 
discrimination in the ordinary life of the 
physical world. The man who takes no 
pains to think definitely and clearly in 
ordinary life will fall a victim to all man- 
ner of illusions when he ascends to higher 
worlds. We have only to consider how 



102 THE GATES OP KNOWLEDGE 

many snares beset sound judgment in 
ordinary affairs. How often it happens 
that people do not see calmly what exists, 
but what they wish to see ! In how many 
cases do they believe a thing, not because 
they have comprehended it, but because 
it pleases them to believe it! And what 
mistakes arise because people will not 
sift a thing to the bottom, but form a 
hasty opinion! All these causes of error 
in ordinary life might be multiplied 
indefinitely. What tricks are played on 
sound judgment by party feeling, passion, 
and prejudice! If such errors of judg- 
ment in ordinary life are disturbing and 
often momentous in their consequences, 
they are the greatest imaginable danger 
to the sanity of the super-sensible life. 
No general rule can be given to the stu- 
dent for his guidance in the higher worlds, 
beyond the injunction to do everything 



INSPIRATION AND INTUITION 103 

possible to develop a healthy power of 
discrimination and a sound and inde- 
pendent judgment. 

When the observer in the higher worlds 
once knows what Imagination really is, 
he very soon acquires the conviction that 
the images of the astral world are not 
merely images, but manifestations of 
spiritual beings. He comes to know that 
these imaginative pictures belong just as 
much to spiritual or psychic beings as do 
physical colours to physical beings or 
objects. As regards details he will, of 
course, have much to learn. He must 
learn to discriminate between colour-pic- 
tures which are opaque and those which 
are quite transparent, and, as it were, 
illumined from within. In fact, he will 
observe some images which seem to be 
continually creating their colour-light 
from within, and which therefore are not 



104 THE GATES OF KNOWLEDGE 

only fully illuminated and transparent, 
but are continually raying forth light. 
He will refer the opaque images to a lower 
order of creation, and the transparent 
ones to intermediate entities, while those 
which radiate light from within may be 
taken as manifestations of higher spiritual 
beings. 

If we would arrive at the truth about 
the world of Imagination, we must not 
form too narrow a conception of spiritual 
sight. For in that world there are not 
only perceptions of light and colour, 
which may be compared with the sight- 
experiences of the physical world, but 
also impressions of heat and cold, taste 
and smell, and yet other experiences of 
imaginative "sense" to which there is no 
analogy in the physical world. Impres- 
sions of heat and cold are, in the imagina- 
tive or astral world, manifestations of the 



INSPIRATION AND INTUITION 105 

will and purpose of psychic and spiritual 
beings. Whether such a being is of good 
or bad intent is apparent in a certain 
effect of heat and cold. Astral beings can 
also be " tasted" or "smelt." Only that 
which constitutes in a real sense the phys- 
ical element of sound and colour is almost 
entirely lacking in the true imaginative 
world. In this respect absolute stillness 
reigns there. But in place thereof, some- 
thing quite different is offered to one who 
is making progress in spiritual observa- 
tion, something which may be compared 
with sound and vibration, speech and 
music, in the world of sense. And this 
higher something enters only when every 
sound and tone from the outer physical 
world is wholly silenced, — in fact, when 
even the lightest psychic echo of anything 
in the outer world is silenced also. Then 
there comes to the observation what may 






io6 THE GATES OF KNOWLEDGE 

be called an understanding of the mean- 
ing of imaginative experiences. 

If we wish to compare what is now felt 
with anything in the physical world, we 
can only suggest as an illustration some- 
thing which does not exist there. If we 
could imagine that we could perceive the 
thoughts and feelings of a person without 
hearing his words by the physical ear, 
such a perception might be compared with 
the direct understanding by the imagina- 
tive faculty which is designated "hearing ' ' 
in the spiritual sense. In that world, col- 
our and light impressions are speech. As 
the images grow bright or dull in colour, 
harmonies or discords are formed which 
reveal the feelings, ideas, and thoughts 
of psychic and spiritual entities. And 
just as sound grows into speech in the 
physical man when thought is impressed 
upon him, so do the harmonies and dis- 



INSPIRATION AND INTUITION 107 

cords of the spiritual world come into 
manifestation as the actual thoughts of 
these beings. And of course darkness 
must fall upon the outer world if such 
thought is to be directly revealed. 

The following experience thus presents 
itself. We see the bright shades of colour 
— red, yellow, and orange — fade away, and 
the higher world grow darker, through 
green, to blue and violet, at the same time 
we feel an increase of will-power in our- 
selves. We experience complete freedom 
with regard to time and space; we feel 
that we are in motion. We are conscious 
of certain linear forms and shapes, yet 
not as though we saw them drawn in 
space, but rather as if we ourselves were 
following every curve and form with our 
ego in continuous movement. In fact we 
feel that the ego is at once the draughts- 
man and the material with which they 



108 THE GATES OF KNOWLEDGE 

are drawn; and every turn of the line, 
every change of place, is equally an 
experience of the ego. We learn to recog- 
nise that we with our ego set in motion 
are bound up with the creative forces of 
the world. The laws of the world are no 
longer something outwardly perceived by 
the ego, but a real web of wonder which 
he is helping to weave. Occult Science 
sketches out for us all kinds of symbolic 
drawings and pictures. When these 
really correspond to facts and are not 
merely figures of invention, they are 
founded on the observer's experiences in 
higher worlds, which are seen in the 
manner described above. 

Thus does the world of Inspiration 
take its place within the Imaginative 
world. When the imaginings begin to 
reveal their meanings to the observer in 
silent language, the world of Inspira- 



INSPIRATION AND INTUITION 109 

tion is opening within the Imaginative 
world. 

The physical world is a manifestation 
of that other world which the spiritual 
observer penetrates in this way. That 
part of the physical world which is per- 
ceptible by the senses, and by the under- 
standing which is limited by them, is in 
fact only the outside of it. To take a 
single example: a plant, as it is observed 
by the physical senses and understanding, 
is not the total being of the plant. He 
who knows only the physical plant is in a 
similar position to one who could perceive 
the finger-nail of a man, but to whom the 
man himself was inaccessible. The nat- 
ure and construction of the finger-nail, 
can be understood only when explained 
by the whole human being. So, in 
reality, the plant is only comprehensible 
when that is known which pertains to it 



no THE GATES OF KNOWLEDGE 

as the whole man pertains to the finger- 
nail. That which makes up the total 
plant cannot be discovered in the physical 
world. To begin with, there is something 
fundamental in the plant which can only 
be revealed by the imaginative faculty 
in the astral world, and something yet 
further which can only be manifested 
through Inspiration in the spiritual world. 
Thus the plant as a physical organism is 
the revelation of a being to be understood 
by means of Imagination and Inspiration. 
It is evident from what has gone before 
that a path opens before the observer in 
the higher worlds which has its beginning 
in the world of sense. That is to say, he 
can start from the physical world and 
ascend from its manifestations to the 
higher beings behind them. If he starts 
from the animal kingdom, he can rise into 
the Imaginative world. If he makes the 



INSPIRATION AND INTUITION in 

plant his point of departure, spiritual 
observation will lead him through Imagi- 
nation to the world of Inspiration. If 
this path is followed, there will soon be 
found within both those worlds beings 
and facts not revealed at all in the physi- 
cal world. We must not, however, think 
that in this way we become acquainted 
only with such beings of the higher worlds 
as have their manifestations in the physi- 
cal. A man who has once entered the 
Imaginative world comes into contact 
with a number of beings and events of 
which the merely physical observer never 
dreams. 

There is another method, which does 
not make the physical world its point of 
departure, and which also makes a man 
directly clairvoyant in the higher regions. 
To many persons this method might be 
more attractive than the one above indi- 



ii2 THE GATES OF KNOWLEDGE 

cated; but in our present-day conditions 
of life the path upward from the physical 
world is rather to be chosen. It imposes 
upon the observer the self-renunciation 
which is necessary, if he is first of all to 
look around him in the physical world and 
gather some sort of knowledge, and more 
particularly some experience there. And, 
indeed, in any case, it is the method best 
suited to our present-day conditions of 
culture. 

The other way presupposes the pre- 
liminary acquisition of qualities of the 
soul extremely difficult to attain under 
modern conditions of life. Even though 
such qualities have again and again been 
strongly and clearly insisted upon in writ- 
ings on this subject, yet the majority of 
people have no idea — or at most, a very 
inadequate one — of the extent to which 
these qualities (for example, unselfishness 



INSPIRATION AND INTUITION 113 

and self-sacrificing love) must be acquired 
if they would attain to the higher worlds 
without starting from the sure ground of 
the physical. And if a person awakes in 
the higher worlds without having attained, 
to the extent necessary, the corresponding 
qualities of the soul, unspeakable misery 
must be the consequence. 

It must on no account be thought that 
the qualities mentioned above can be 
dispensed with in cases where the start is 
made from the physical world ; to imagine 
this would be a false deduction. But 
such a beginning allows for the gradual 
acquisition of these qualities in the degree 
■ — and above all in the form — practicable 
under our present conditions of life. 

Another thing in this connection has to 
be taken into account. If we start from 
the physical world in the manner indica- 
ted, we remain, notwithstanding our 



H4 THE GATES OP KNOWLEDGE 

ascent into the higher worlds, in close 
touch with the physical plane. We keep 
intact our full understanding of all that is 
going on in it, and all our energy for work- 
ing there. Indeed, this understanding 
and energy increase in a most helpful way 
in consequence of our knowledge of the 
higher worlds. In every department of 
life, even in what seems most prosaic and 
practical, the knower of the higher worlds 
will work better and more usefully than 
the ignorant man, if only the former has 
kept himself in living touch with the 
physical world. 

The man, however, who awakens in the 
higher spheres without starting from the 
physical, is only too readily estranged 
from outward life; he becomes a hermit, 
confronting his contemporaries without 
understanding or sympathy. Indeed, it 
often happens that people who are imper- 



INSPIRATION AND INTUITION 115 

f ectly developed in this way (of course not 
those who are fully evolved) look down 
with a certain contempt on the experi- 
ences of the physical world and imagine 
themselves superior to them. Instead of 
having their sympathy with the world in- 
creased, such people harden themselves 
and become selfish in the spiritual sense 
of the word. The temptation to do this 
is by no means small, and those who are 
striving to attain to the higher worlds will 
do well to be on their guard against it. 

From Inspiration the spiritual observer 
may rise to Intuition. In the phraseol- 
ogy of Occult Science this word denotes 
in many respects the exact opposite of 
that to which it is often applied in ordi- 
nary life. People speak of Intuition as 
if they had in their mind some idea dimly 
felt to be true, but lacking any clear and 
exact confirmation. It is seen as a pre- 



n6 THE GATES OF KNOWLEDGE 

liminary step towards knowledge, rather 
than knowledge itself. An idea of this 
kind may — according to that definition — 
illuminate a great truth like a flash of 
lightning, but it can only become know- 
ledge when confirmed by accurate judg- 
ment. Again, by Intuition is generally 
denoted something which is "felt" as 
truth, and of which a person is quite con- 
vinced, but which he will not encumber 
with intellectual judgment. People who 
are acquiring a knowledge of Occult 
Science often say: That was always clear 
to me "intuitively." But we must put 
all this entirely aside if we would fix our 
attention on the true meaning which the 
term Intuition here implies. In this 
connection Intuition is a mode of cogni- 
tion which is in no way inferior in clear- 
ness to intellectual knowledge, but far 
surpasses it. 



INSPIRATION AND INTUITION 117 

The experiences of the higher worlds 
reveal their meaning through Inspiration. 
The observer lives in the qualities and 
actions of the beings pertaining to those 
worlds. When he follows with his ego, 
as described above, the direction of a line, 
or the shape of a figure, he knows at the 
same instant that he is not within the 
being itself, but within its qualities and 
functions. He has already experienced 
in Imaginative knowledge the feeling of 
being no longer outside, but inside the 
colour-images, but at the same time he 
understands no less clearly that these 
colour-images are not themselves inde- 
pendent beings, but only the qualities of 
such beings. In Inspiration, he is con- 
scious of becoming one with the deeds of 
such beings, and with the manifestations 
of their will ; in Intuition, for the first time, 
he merges his own personality into that of 



n8 THE GATES OF KNOWLEDGE 

self-contained beings. This can happen 
in the right way only when the blending 
takes place, not through the effacement, 
but with the full preservation of his own 
being. Any ' ' losing of oneself ' ' in another 
being is wrong. Therefore only an ego 
which is fortified within itself to a very 
high degree can with impunity plunge into 
the being of another. 

Something has been realised intuitively 
for the first time when the feeling arises 
with regard to it that some being is find- 
ing expression therein who is of the same 
nature as one's own ego. A man who 
observes a stone with his outer senses and 
seeks to understand its qualities by his 
reason, and by the usual scientific meth- 
ods, gets to know only the outside of the 
stone. As a spiritual observer he then 
proceeds to Imaginative and Inspirational 
knowledge. If he dwell inwardly in the 



INSPIRATION AND INTUITION 119 

latter, he may arrive at a further percep- 
tion, which may be described by compari- 
son in the following way. Let us suppose 
that we see a person in the street, who at 
first makes only a fleeting impression on 
us. Afterwards we get to know him bet- 
ter, then a time arrives when we become 
such friends that soul reveals itself to soul. 
With such an experience, when the veils 
of the soul fall away and one ego sees the 
other face to face, we may compare what 
happens when the stone first appears to 
the spiritual observer as an outward ap- 
pearance only, and he ultimately reaches 
something to which the stone belongs, 
just as the finger-nail belongs to the 
human body, and which lives its life as an 
ego after the same fashion as our own 
inner self. 

The kind of knowledge which takes us 
into the innermost nature of beings is first 



120 THE GATES OF KNOWLEDGE 

attained in Intuition. Something has 
already been said with regard to Inspira- 
tion as to the change which must be 
brought about in the inner psychic con- 
dition of the spiritual observer if he 
wishes to attain this mode of cognition. 
It has been stated, for instance, that an 
inaccurate conclusion must not affect the 
intellect only, but the feelings also, and 
must cause pain and grief. And the 
observer must systematically cultivate 
that kind of inward life. Of course, so 
long as such pain springs only from the 
sympathies or antipathies of the ego, and 
from partiality, it cannot be spoken of 
as an adequate preparation for Inspira- 
tion. Such mental contacts are very far 
removed from the inner sympathy which 
the ego must feel for pure truth, as truth, 
if he would attain the goal in question. 
It cannot be too strongly emphasised that 



INSPIRATION AND INTUITION 121 

all forms of interest which prevail in or- 
dinary life, as pleasure or pain in relation 
to truth or error, must first be silenced, 
and then a totally different interest, 
wholly free from self-seeking, must enter 
in, if any glimpse is to be had of Inspira- 
tional Knowledge. This quality of the 
inner spiritual life is, however, only one of 
the means of preparing for Inspiration. 
A great number of others must be added. 
And the more the spiritual observer puri- 
fies himself with regard to what has 
already served him for Inspiration, the 
nearer he will be able to approach to 
Intuition. 



PHILOSOPHY AND THEOSOPHY 

A LECTURE DELIVERED AT STUTTGART 
ON AUGUST 17, I908 

Authorised Translation by A.B. 



123 



PHILOSOPHY AND THEOSOPHY 

A FTER having come to the close of a 
long course of purely Theosophic 
Lectures, we will to-day assume a differ- 
ent tone. I must therefore ask you, from 
the very outset, to take into consideration 
that to-day's address is not in the actual 
sense a Theosophic one, and that the 
purely philosophic tone which must be 
adopted may, to such as are unaccus- 
tomed to this mode of thought, seem 
somewhat abstract and difficult. 

I have a definite reason for this depar- 
ture : it is, that again and again, and more 
especially in those circles possessing, or 
believing themselves to possess, a certain 
amount of philosophic training, the opin- 
ion must arise (and I use the word " must" 
125 



126 PHILOSOPHY AND THEOSOPHY 

advisedly) that Theosophy is tolerable 
only to persons who have been unable 
to pursue their philosophic, or scientific, 
studies beyond a certain point of amateur- 
ishness. It might easily be presumed in 
such circles that a person possessing thor- 
ough philosophic training, and acquainted 
with what are the foundations of scien- 
tific assumptions and convictions, could 
from the very beginning never concern 
himself with all those fantasies presum- 
ably accepted as "higher experiences ;" 
that such things could but appeal to 
those who were as yet unripe for philo- 
sophic thought. 

Now, in order to ascertain to what this 
opinion is due, we will, for once in a way, 
ourselves take a survey of the activities 
of Philosophy. This can be done only in 
a perfunctory manner to-day, giving the 
merest indications; but when on some 



PHILOSOPHY AND THEOSOPHY 127 

future occasion I may have the oppor- 
tunity of speaking in a more detailed 
manner about these things, you will be in 
a position to see for yourselves that such 
indications have been drawn from a great 
context. 

Philosophy has been generally regarded, 
by those who concern themselves with the 
subject, as something absolute, not as 
something which was bound to come into 
existence in the course of the development 
of mankind. 

It is, however, precisely when dealing 
with the Science of Philosophy that we are 
in a position to show, by means of exter- 
nal historic documents, the time at which 
it had its origin in the evolution of man- 
kind. Now that time has been fairly well 
determined, and more especially so by the 
older interpreters of the History of Philos- 
ophy. In all such presentations you will 



128 PHILOSOPHY AND THEOSOPHY 

find that a beginning is made with Thales, 
and from him onwards in continuity down 
to our times. 

A few newer writers on the History of 
Philosophy, desirous of appearing more 
particularly erudite and clever, have, it is 
true, attempted to place the beginning of 
Philosophy at a more remote date, drag- 
ging in all kinds of material from the early 
"Wisdom" teaching. All this, however, 
is due to a particular form of dilettanteism, 
wholly ignorant of the fact that every- 
thing that preceded it in the " Wisdom" 
study of India, Egypt, and Chaldea, was 
in point of method entirely different in 
origin from purely philosophic thought, 
with its leaning towards the speculative. 
This form first developed in the Greek 
world of thought, and there the first to 
engage our attention in this respect cer- 
tainly is Thales. 



PHILOSOPHY AND THEOSOPHY 129 

We have no need to occupy ourselves 
with the characteristics of the various 
Greek philosophers from Thales onward; 
neither need we concern ourselves with 
Anaxagoras, Herakleitos, Anaximenes, 
nor yet with Socrates or Plato. We may 
begin at once with the personality who 
represented the very first philosopher 
Har' iZoxrfv (par excellence), and that was 
Aristotle. 

All other philosophies are in reality but 
abstractions based upon the Mystery 
Wisdom; of Thales and Herakleitos this 
could easily be proved. Neither Plato 
nor Pythagoras is a Philosopher in the 
actual sense of the word, the sources of 
both being in seership; since Philosophy, 
when characterised as such, does not 
depend upon the ideas which a man 
expresses, but is determined rather by the 
sources whence he derives his information. 



130 PHILOSOPHY AND THEOSOPHY 

Pythagoras found his sources in the 
Ancient Mystery Wisdom, and trans- 
lated the knowledge thus acquired into 
definitions. He was a Seer, only it came 
to pass that what he saw as seer he clothed 
in philosophic garb ; and the same was the 
case with Plato. 

But what constitutes the Philosopher, 
and what we happen to meet with for the 
first time in Aristotle is this, that he works 
out for himself a science of definitions, 
and of necessity either rejects all other 
sources, or has no access to them. And 
since this is found for the first time in 
Aristotle, there is no lack of historical 
reason for stating that it was precisely he 
who founded Logic, the Science of Think- 
ing. Everything else had been of a 
precursory nature only. The manner in 
which notions occur to us, in which our 
opinions are formed and our conclusions 



PHILOSOPHY AND THEOSOPHY 131 

drawn, — all this was first set forth by 
Aristotle as a kind of Natural History- 
dealing with subjective human thought, 
and everything with which we come in 
contact when dealing with him is closely 
associated with these foundations of 
Thought Method. As we shall have to 
revert to these things, which in his case 
are of fundamental importance for all 
later aspects of the subject, it needs no 
more than this historical intimation in 
order to characterise the point of depart- 
ure in a few words. 

For. later times also Aristotle remains 
the representative Philosopher. The out- 
come of what he accomplished permeated 
not only the later Aristotelian period of 
antiquity, up to the founding of Christ- 
ianity, but from the dawn of Christianity 
onward to the Middle Ages it was to him 
that all turned in their efforts to formu- 



132 PHILOSOPHY AND THEOSOPHY 

late a Conception of the Universe. By 
this we do not mean to say that men had 
Aristotle's philosophy before them as a 
system, as a collection of dogmas (espe- 
cially in the Middle Ages, a time when the 
original manuscripts were not attainable). 
Yet they had, through his influence, ac- 
quired the way in which, by the aid of a 
purely technical form of conception, they 
might rise to the highest Divine Know- 
ledge. And thus it came to pass that 
Aristotle was more and more regarded 
as the teacher of Logical Thought. 

It was somewhat in this way that a 
person in the Middle Ages would have put 
the matter to himself. Wherever the posi- 
tive perception of the world as a Fact may 
come from, be it due to man's examina- 
tion of external realities by means of his 
senses, or, be it due to Revelation by 
Divine Grace, through Christ Jesus, these 



PHILOSOPHY AND THEOSOPHY 133 

things have simply to be accepted : on the 
one hand as the deposition of the senses ; 
on the other as Revelation. Should we, 
however, desire to substantiate this or 
that by pure definition, then, we must 
have recourse to that system of thought 
instituted by Aristotle. 

And in very truth, of such value and 
importance has been the work done by 
Aristotle in framing this Thought Method 
that Kant was but right in declaring that 
"since the time of Aristotle Logic has not 
advanced by so much as a single sentence. ' ' 
In all essentials, indeed, this statement 
may be endorsed at the present day. 
Nowadays too, the fundamental teach- 
ings embodying a logical system of 
thought will be found to remain almost 
unaltered, if compared with what Aris- 
totle set down: such matter as persons 
may be inclined to add at the present day 



134 PHILOSOPHY AND THEOSOPHY 

is the outcome of a somewhat amateurish 
attitude, assumed even in philosophic 
circles, in relation to the conception of 
Logic. 

Now it was not alone the study of 
Aristotle, but above all the finding one's 
way into his Method of Thought, that 
became of immediate moment for the 
central period of the Middle Ages, or for 
the Early Scholastic Era, as we may also 
term it, when Scholasticism was in its 
prime, — a period which came to a close 
with Thomas Aquinas, in the thirteenth 
century. 

Speaking of this time of Early Scholas- 
ticism, it must be clearly understood that 
at the present day allusion to it can only 
be made, in terms of philosophy, if 
unhampered by all authority and all dog- 
matic belief. It is, indeed, more difficult 
nowadays to speak of these things 



PHILOSOPHY AND THEOSOPHY 135 

purely objectively, than disparagingly, 
for, when speaking with disparagement, 
we do not encounter the danger of being 
dubbed "heretics" by so-called "free" 
thinkers: but, in speaking objectively, we 
run the chance of being misunderstood, 
the reason for this being that in the pre- 
sent day an ecclesiastical movement of a 
positive and most intolerant kind has 
based its appeal upon totally mis- 
understood Thomism. What to-day 
stands for orthodox catholic Philosophy 
should in no wise affect us; nevertheless 
we should be just as little disconcerted 
by the reproach we may possibly have to 
encounter, that we ourselves are con- 
cerned with what is both followed and 
advised in dogmatic quarters. Let us 
rather seek to characterise, regardless of 
aught else that may impose itself on our 
attention, the attitude of Scholasticism 



136 PHILOSOPHY AND THEOSOPHY 

at its zenith towards Science, Thought 
Method, and Supernatural Revelation. 

Early Scholasticism does not allow of 
the characterisation usually applied to 
it in these days. Early Scholasticism is 
Monism, and not in the remotest sense 
of a dualistic nature. To it the world's 
Primal Source is undoubtedly a Unity: 
only that for the recognising of the Primi- 
tive Element the Scholastic employs a 
special kind of perception. He says: 
" There is a certain property of super- 
sensual Truth that has primarily been 
revealed to Humanity." "Human 
Thought has in spite of all its efforts 
not yet been able to press through to 
those regions whose existence is the 
subject-matter of the highest revealed 
wisdom." 

Thus, there existed for the early Schol- 
astics a certain fund of Wisdom to which 



PHILOSOPHY AND THEOSOPHY 137 

by no method of thought could they im- 
mediately attain: it becomes only attain- 
able in so far as the thought is capable of 
interpreting that which has been revealed. 

This portion of the Wisdom, then, the 
thinker is bound to accept as revelation, 
using his thought power for its interpre- 
tation only. All that man can evolve 
from his own inner consciousness has its 
being only in certain subordinate regions 
of Reality, and here the Scholastic has 
recourse to active thought in pursuit of 
his research. He pushes forward up to 
certain limits where Revealed Wisdom 
meets him. Thus the contents of his 
own research and revelation unite in an 
objective unified and monistic conception 
of the universe. That a kind of dualism, 
owing to human limitations, is associated 
with the matter, is of only secondary 
importance: it concerns a dualism of per- 



138 PHILOSOPHY AND THEOSOPHY 

ception, not a dualism of Cosmic Causes. 

The Scholastic therefore explains 
thought method as a means of being able 
rationally to elaborate that which empiri- 
cal science acquires by the observation 
of the senses, as well as a means of helping 
to penetrate further, even into Spiritual 
Truth. And here the Scholastic, in all 
humility, presents a portion of that Wis- 
dom as " Revelation,' ' not as discovered 
by himself, but as that which he is called 
upon to accept. 

Now the special method of thought here 
used by the Scholastics had most emphati- 
cally sprung from a basis of Aristotelian 
Logic. There was, in fact, a twofold 
necessity for the early Scholastics (whose 
period came to an end with the thirteenth 
century) to concern themselves with 
Aristotle. The first necessity was due to 
historical developments: Aristotelianism 



PHILOSOPHY AND THEOSOPHY 139 

had become acclimatised: the second 
necessity arose from the fact that, as time 
went on, an enemy to Christianity sprang 
up in another quarter. 

The teachings of Aristotle had not found 
expansion in the Occident only, but in 
Oriental lands also, and everything that 
found its way into Spain by means of the 
Arabs, and which thence penetrated still 
farther into Europe, was, in as far as 
" thought method" was concerned, per- 
meated with Aristotelianism. 

More especially was this the case with 
that particular form of Philosophy known 
as Natural Science, which embracing 
Medicine, had also been imported, and 
which was in the most emphatic sense 
Aristotelian. Now an opinion had been 
formed that nothing but a kind of Pan- 
theism could be the consistent outcome of 
Aristotelian teaching, which, especially as 



140 PHILOSOPHY AND THEOSOPHY 

to its philosophy, had evolved itself from 
a very vague mysticism. 

There was, therefore, in addition to this 
special reason, — the fact that Aristotle's 
influence still animated thought method, 
— yet another reason for men to concern 
themselves with his teachings, for, in the 
interpretation placed upon them by the 
Arabs, Aristotle is made to appear as the 
opponent and foe of Christianity. 

What we have to ask ourselves is this : — 
Were the ideas which the Arabs imported 
as the interpretation of Aristotle a true 
interpretation? Aristotelianism would 
then indeed be a scientific basis adapted 
to contradict the teachings of Christian- 
ity. Now let us picture to ourselves 
what in face of such conclusions must 
have been the feelings of the Scholastics : 
upon the one side they adhered firmly to 
the truth of Christianity, yet upon the 






PHILOSOPHY AND THEOSOPHY 141 

other they were bound by all their tra- 
ditions to acknowledge nothing less than 
the Thought Method of Aristotle— 
namely, Logic — as true and correct. 

And out of this dissension arose the 
task of the Scholastics: the proving that 
even while philosophising it was still pos- 
sible to apply the Logic of the Greek sage, 
aye, that it was exactly he who had pro- 
vided the instrument by means of which 
Christianity could really be conceived 
and understood. It was a task which 
owed its inception to the development of 
that day. Aristotelianism had to be 
treated in such a manner as to make it 
evident that what the Arabs had im- 
ported and put forward as the teachings 
of Aristotle was only to be considered as 
erroneous when it showed a tendency in- 
imical to Christianity; that, in short, one 
had but to interpret him correctly in 



142 PHILOSOPHY AND THEOSOPHY 

order to find in his philosophy a basis for 
the true conception of the Christian 
religion. And this was the task Scholas- 
ticism set itself, to the achievement of 
which the entire writings of the Thomists 
were devoted. 

Now, however, something else hap- 
pened. When the day of Scholasticism 
had drawn to its close, there occurred in 
the course of time a complete rupture 
along the whole philological line of 
evolution in human thought. The most 
natural thing would have been (and be it 
understood that this is not put forward 
in any sense as a criticism — it is not even 
suggested that it could have happened in 
this wise, for the actual course taken was 
the absolutely necessary one, the case 
therefore is put thus hypotheticaJly) — 
the most natural thing would have been 
to have expanded Thought Method even 



PHILOSOPHY AND THEOSOPHY 143 

further, so that ever higher and higher 
portions of the supersensual world should 
have been grasped by thought. But the 
next development was not this. The fun- 
damental Thought which, with Thomas 
Aquinas, for instance, was applicable 
to the highest and most exalted regions, 
and which might have been so developed 
bhat the limits of human research would 
tiave been enlarged, embracing ever re- 
moter and higher realms, this fundamental 
Thought became distorted to a caricature 
Df itself, its existence prolonged in a con- 
viction only. The highest spiritual truths 
withdraw themselves entirely from the 
area of purely human thought activity, 
From any elaboration into definitions. 

By such means a division occurred in 
man's spiritual life. Supersensual know- 
ledge was regarded as something inaccess- 
ible to every effort of human thought, as 



144 PHILOSOPHY AND THEOSOPHY 

something that could not be attained to 
by any subjective effort based on know- 
ledge, but that was compelled to have its 
roots in Faith. 

This tendency was evinced in earlier 
times, but it ran to extremes towards the 
close of the Middle Ages, as the division 
between the faith that had been attained 
by subjective conviction and the faith 
that, as the foundation of a sound judg- 
ment, had to be the result of logical 
activity, became more and more accent- 
uated. 

It was but natural that before this 
yawning chasm Knowledge and Belief 
were forced further apart, nor was it 
unnatural that Aristotle and his method 
of thought should have been dragged in to 
fill up the gap occasioned by historical 
developments. This was done more es- 
pecially at the beginning of the Modern 



PHILOSOPHY AND THEOSOPHY 145 

Era. Thus upon the one side men of 
science maintained — (and here I am quite 
ready to admit that much of what they 
said may be regarded as reasonable 
enough) — that no mere spinning out of 
what had already been placed on record 
by Aristotle could lead to any advance 
in the search for empirical Truth. 

Besides this, the sequence of historical 
events showed that it might be inadvis- 
able to make common cause with the fol- 
lowers of Aristotle; for, indeed, as the 
time of Keppler and Galileo approached, 
misconceived Aristotelianism had become 
a veritable plague in the land. 

It has proved to be the case again and 
again that those who called themselves 
adherents of some particular conception 
of the Universe have, times out of num- 
ber, destroyed an incalculable amount of 
that which the founders themselves had 



146 PHILOSOPHY AND THEOSOPHY 

presented in the right way. Instead of 
looking to Nature herself, instead of 
bringing observation to bear, it was, at 
the end of the Middle Ages, found easier 
to make use of the old books of Aristotle, 
dwelling, at all academic lectures, en- 
tirely on the written letter of the Greek 
Logician. 

The following story is characteristic 
of this habit. An orthodox Aristotelian 
had been invited to see for himself, by 
assisting at the autopsy of a body, how 
utterly he had misconceived the sense of 
Aristotle in maintaining that the nerves 
proceeded from the heart, when, as a 
matter of fact, the nervous system had 
its centre in the brain. Yet, in spite of 
ocular demonstration, the Aristotelian's 
reply was: "Observation certainly shows 
me that this is actually the case, but 
Aristotle states the reverse, and I have 






PHILOSOPHY AND THEOSOPHY 147 

greater faith in him." Thus it will be 
seen that followers of Aristotle had 
become a positive nuisance. It was 
imperative for empirical science to rid 
itself of this false Aristotelianism and base 
its authority upon pure experience, and 
we find the strongest impulse in this 
direction given by the great Galileo. 

On the other side an entirely different 
development took place. Those who, so 
to speak, sought to save their Faith from 
this threatened invasion of independent 
thought, developed a kind of aversion 
to Logic. They were of opinion that 
this method of thought was powerless in 
the presence of Revealed Wisdom, and 
when the worldly empirics supported 
their assertions by referring to the books 
of Aristotle, their opponents confronted 
them with arguments they had taken 
from a different, but, of course, equally 



148 PHILOSOPHY AND THEOSOPHY 

misunderstood Book, namely, the Bible. 
This was more particularly the case in the 
beginning of the New Era, as we may 
gather from Luther's bitter words apos- 
trophising Reason as "a deaf and pur- 
blind fool," that should have naught to 
do with Spiritual Truths, adding further 
that a pure conviction of faith can never 
be kindled by such means as reasoned 
thought founded upon Aristotle, to whom 
he applies such opprobrious names as: 
"Hypocrite," "Sycophant," and "Stink- 
ing Goat . ' ' These are indeed hard words , 
but when considered from the standpoint 
of that new era they may be better under- 
stood. 

What had taken place was that a deep 
chasm had opened between Reason and 
its allied Thought Method on the one 
hand, and supersensual Truth on the 
other; and this chasm has found its final 



PHILOSOPHY AND THEOSOPHY 149 

expression in the person of a philosopher 
whose influence has, as it were, caught the 
nineteenth century in a web from which 
it finds some difficulty in extricating 
itself; this philosopher is Kant. He is, 
virtually, the last adherent of opinions re- 
sulting from that division which occurred 
in the Middle Ages. 

He made a marked division between 
Faith and that to which man is capable 
of attaining by means of Knowledge. 
Externally, "The Critic of Pure Reason" 
stands, as it were, side by side with "The 
Critic of Practical Reason,' ' and Practical 
Reason ever seeks to acquire what may 
be termed a standpoint of rationalistic 
thought, as opposed to that which may 
be termed knowledge. On the other 
hand, Theoretical Reason, as advanced 
by Kant, is stigmatised most emphati- 
cally as incapable of realising the Actual 



150 PHILOSOPHY AND THEOSOPHY 

— the ' ' thing in itself ' ' {Das Ding an sich) . 
The " thing in itself" makes impressions 
upon man, it is true. These, however, 
can live only in man's self -representation, 
in his own concepts of such impressions. 
Now, we should be obliged to delve deep 
down into the history of the philosophy 
of Kant should we desire to characterise 
his distinctive fundamental error, but 
this would lead us too far away from our 
present object; moreover I have already 
dealt with it in my book entitled Truth 
and Science {Wahrheit und Wissenschaft) . 

What is of far more interest to us at the 
present moment is this "web" in the 
meshes of which the philosophic thought 
of the nineteenth century has found itself 
entangled. Let us enquire how this came 
about. 

Kant felt above all things the necessity 
of demonstrating to what extent some- 



PHILOSOPHY AND THEOSOPHY 151 

thing absolute might be connected with 
the process of thinking; something, that 
is to say, concerning which there could 
be no uncertainty, "for," said he, "all 
that has its origin in experience is of 
uncertain quality." Our judgment can 
derive certainty only from that factor in 
recognition which originates with our- 
selves, — not from external things or 
objects. 

We see things, or objects, therefore, 
in the Kantian sense, as through a col- 
oured glass; and within ourselves we 
gather recognition of these things in their 
lawful connection, dependent upon our 
own consciousness. Our faculty of recog- 
nition has certain conventions, those of 
space and time, as well as of cause and 
effect: these have no meaning for the 
"thing in itself," at least we have no 
knowledge as to whether the "thing in 



152 PHILOSOPHY AND THEOSOPHY 

itself" has any existence in space, time, 
or causation. These are conventions 
which arise only in the subjective mind of 
man, and which he evolves concerning 
the " thing in itself" in the moment of its 
appearing to him, so that the "thing in 
itself ' ' remains unknown to him. Where- 
ever, therefore, the "thing in itself" 
confronts man, he clothes it with the con- 
ventions of space and time, and applies 
to it the law of cause and effect, casting 
his entire network of concepts and con- 
ventions about the "thing in itself." For 
which reason man may be said to have a 
certain surety of knowledge, since, as long 
as he is as he is, Time, Space, and Causa- 
tion possess a meaning for him. And 
what man puts into things he has to 
extract from them again. Nevertheless, 
he is unable to know what the "thing in 
itself" is, for he stands for ever baffled 



PHILOSOPHY AND THEOSOPHY 153 

before his Idea of it. Schopenhauer 
recognised this, and has placed his con- 
viction upon record in those classic words 
of his: "The World is my Conception." 

Now the sum of these conclusions has 
been carried over into the entire thought 
of the nineteenth century, not only in 
regard to the Theory of Cognition, but 
also as affecting the theoretical ground- 
work of Physiology, and here certain 
experiences contributed their aid. 

If we look at the doctrine concerning 
the specific energies of the senses there 
would seem to be a corroboration of the 
Kantian opinion. At all events, that is 
how the matter was regarded during the 
nineteenth century. 

Thus any one might say : "The eye per- 
ceives light :" yet if the eye is affected by 
some other means, say by pressure, or by 
an electric shock, it also becomes aware of 



154 PHILOSOPHY AND THEOSOPHY 

light. Hence it was said: "The percep- 
tion of light is generated by means of the 
specific energy of the eye and transferred 
to the 'thing in itself.' " 

More especially did Helmholtz in the 
crudest manner lay this down as a physi- 
ological-philosophical axiom, declaring : 
"All we perceive cannot be supposed to 
have even so much as a pictorial resem- 
blance to those things which are exterior 
to us. The picture has a semblance of 
that which it represents, but that which 
we call perception cannot have so close a 
resemblance to the original as has the 
picture. Therefore," he further contin- 
ues, "that which man experiences within 
himself cannot be otherwise expressed 
than by calling it a symbol of the ' thing 
in itself,' for a symbol need have no 
actual resemblance to the thing it ex- 
presses." Thus, what had long been in 



PHILOSOPHY AND THEOSOPHY 155 

preparation entered so completely into 
the philosophic thought of our times that 
men became incapable of perceiving, in- 
capable of even thinking, that the truth 
of the matter might be otherwise. 

For such reasons Eduard von Hartmann 
was quite unable to find a way out of his 
own web of definitions. For instance, 
in a conversation I once had with him, it 
was absolutely impossible to get beyond 
this: "We must," he said, " surely pro- 
ceed from the conception, and when we 
define the conception we have to say that 
it is that by means of which man is 
enabled to perceive the non-conceivable 
(ein Nichtvorgestelltes)\" And yet, if the 
conception from which we must proceed 
is something subjective we are again un- 
able to get beyond the subjective. It did 
not seem to occur to him that he had, 
in the first place, constructed this defini- 



156 PHILOSOPHY AND THEOSOPHY 

tion, and now found himself unable to 
escape from his own carefully arranged 
structure. Indeed, the whole of his 
Transcendental Realism rests upon his 
having enmeshed himself within a web of 
his own making, and one which he takes 
to be an objective truth. 

Along these lines no one can get beyond 
the statement that, "what I conceive with 
my perception never goes beyond the con- 
fines of the 'thing in itself': it is there- 
fore only subjective.' ' This habit of 
thought has in the course of time become 
so firmly rooted that all those theorists 
who take to themselves credit for under- 
standing Kant, now regard every other 
person as being of limited intelligence if 
he does not consider their definition of 
conceptions and of the subjective nature 
of observation to be the right one. And all 
this has been the result of that split which 



PHILOSOPHY AND THEOSOPHY 157 

I have already described as occurring in 
the spiritual development of humanity. 

Now any one who really studied Aris- 
totle would easily perceive how entirely 
different a conception, both as to principle 
and theory, might, in place of a distorted 
one, have been the result of a direct devel- 
opment onward from Aristotle. 

Aristotle had already accepted, in the 
regions of theoretical perception, those 
ideas to which man in this day is but 
slowly and gradually ascending, through 
all that tangle of academic undergrowth 
which has been the outcome of the influ- 
ence of Kant. We have, above all things, 
to learn to understand how it was possible 
for Aristotle, by means of his method of 
thought, to put forward definitions which 
are rightly conceived, and lead immedi- 
ately to the overstepping of those self- 
imposed limits. 



158 PHILOSOPHY AND THEOSOPHY 

We need concern ourselves with no more 
than a few of the fundamental concep- 
tions propounded by Aristotle in order to 
recognise this. It is entirely in conform- 
ity with his views to say, "If we analyse 
the things about us, we find in the first 
place that what provides us with a con- 
ception of these things is the fact that we 
perceive them with our senses : sense pre- 
sents each separate thing to us." If, 
however, we begin to think, the things 
group themselves ; we gather divers things 
together into a unit of thought. And 
here Aristotle finds the right relation- 
ship between unity of thought and objec- 
tive reality — the objectiveness that leads 
to the "thing in itself " — in showing that 
when we are thinking consistently we are 
bound to imagine the world of experience 
about us as composed of matter and what 
he terms form. 



PHILOSOPHY AND THEOSOPHY 159 

Matter and Form are to Aristotle two 
conceptions which he defines in the only 
true sense in which they permit of defini- 
tion. We might go on talking for hours, 
if we wished to exhaust these two con- 
ceptions, together with all they involve. 
Still we may at least contribute a certain 
portion of what is elementary to this 
subject, so as to understand what it 
is that Aristotle defines as Form and 
Matter. 

He is confident himself that with re- 
spect to all things immediately about us, 
— the things that make up our world of 
experience, — the conception of all these 
things depends upon an apprehension of 
Form, since it is Form that gives to 
objects their reality, not Matter. The 
Form is to Aristotle the Reality. 

There are even in our day persons 
endowed with a true comprehension of 



160 PHILOSOPHY AND THEOSOPHY 

Aristotle. Dr. Vinzenz Knauer, who in 
the 'eighties was lecturer at the University 
of Vienna, explained to those attending 
his classes the difference between Matter 
and Form, and upon what this difference 
depended, illustrating his meaning in a 
forcible if somewhat grotesque way. 

" Imagine," he said, "that for a con- 
siderable portion of his existence a wolf 
had eaten nothing but lambs: would he 
not practically consist of lamb only? And 
yet, no wolf ever becomes a lamb ! ' ' This, 
if only rightly followed up, points out the 
difference between Matter and Form. 
Is the wolf a wolf by reason of Matter? 
No! His being has been imposed upon 
him by his Form, and his Form is not the 
form of this particular wolf alone, but 
that common to all wolves. Thus, by 
means of conception, we find Form to be 
something universal, in contradistinction 



PHILOSOPHY AND THEOSOPHY 161 

to that which the senses are able to con- 
ceive of separately. 

According to the meaning of Aristotle 
we can distinguish accurately, by means 
of a true theory of conception, what is 
universal, in three ways. We can say : this 
universal is the actual, is that whereon 
it depends. But is that which has its 
being in human thought the same as that 
which we, in the true sense, allude to as 
Form? No. Man, approaching those 
separate wolves, perceives what is com- 
mon to all wolves from a study of these 
single examples of the species. Never- 
theless, that which he here conceives of 
as a something made up of certain similar 
characteristics is but the representation 
of what is actually universal. 

(All this can of course be but suggested 
in the most fragmentary way.) 

We have therefore to differentiate: a 



162 PHILOSOPHY AND THEOSOPHY 

"Universal" which is anterior to those 
units confronting us externally ; next, since 
this is the essential : a "Universal" com- 
prised within these units; and further: a 
third form of the "Universal" which man 
subsequently evolves from out his own 
thoughts. 

We have therefore: 

i . Universalia ante rem. 

2. Universalia in re. 

3. Universalia post rem. 

The latter unroll themselves within 
the subjective mind and are "objectively- 
real universals" representing our inner 
experiences. 

Until we approach these threefold 
differences, no right conception can be 
arrived at, upon this basis, with regard 
to that which is important here. For 
only consider for a moment what is 
involved. 



PHILOSOPHY AND THEOSOPHY 163 

What is involved is the conception that 
man, in so far as he remains within the 
11 Universalia post rem'' is possessed of a 
subjective. Yet at the same time some- 
thing intrinsic is implied, namely, that 
man's conception is a "representation" of 
that which as actual form (Entelechy) 1 
has universal duration, and into this 
14 Universalia in re" such things only have 
entered because as " Universalia ante rem" 
they already existed prior to those objects. 

Thus we have a Universalia ante rem 
which we must accept in the Deity, as 
existent in the Wisdom of God. 

The Christian Theologist, the Scholas- 
tic, conceived this in a similar manner, 
the only difference being that he did 
not ascend directly to the Highest Di- 
vinity. As Theosophists, we are aware 

1 Greek, meaning the actual being of a thing as opposed 
to simple capability or potentiality. 



164 PHILOSOPHY AND THEOSOPHY 

that the Universalia in re, when dealing, 
for instance, with brute creation, means 
the " group souls/ ' and thus we have in 
Aristotelianism actually a fundamental- 
ising of that which Theosophy is able to 
support by definition. 

There is, however, in addition to all 
that we meet with in Aristotle, something 
else that has become increasingly anti- 
pathetic to these modern times. It is 
this: that it is imperative for us to 
habituate ourselves to thinking in concise 
and finely chiselled forms of definition; 
in conceptions that we have first carefully 
prepared; and it is necessary, in order to 
do this, that we should have the patience 
to advance from conception to concep- 
tion ; above all things, also, that we employ 
clearness and neatness of definition; that 
we be aware of what we are speaking of 
when we use a definition. If, for instance, 



PHILOSOPHY AND THEOSOPHY 165 

in the Scholastic sense, we speak of the 
relation of a conception to that which it 
represents, we are obliged in the first 
place to work our way through the 
lengthy definitions in the writings of the 
Scholastics. We must understand what 
is meant when we find it stated that the 
idea is, as to form, grounded in the sub- 
ject, and has its foundation based on the 
object: that which defines the actual 
appearance of the idea being derived from 
the subject, whilst what it contains is 
derived from the object. This is but a 
small example, — a very small one; for, if 
you were to go through the works of the 
Scholastics, you would have to labour 
through ponderous volumes of definitions, 
a matter which would be exceedingly 
tedious to the scientist of to-day, — for 
which reason he looks upon the Scholas- 
tics as learned humbugs and leaves them 



166 PHILOSOPHY AND THEOSOPHY 

severely alone. He is quite unaware that 
true Scholasticism is nothing else than 
the careful elaboration of the Art of 
Thinking, in order that this may form a 
foundation for a true conception of the 
Real. 

And when I state this you will under- 
stand what an immense boon it will be 
if efforts should arise within the Theo- 
sophical Society which should, in the very 
best sense, have for their object the ela- 
boration of the principles governing the 
Theory of Perception. And as here in 
Stuttgart we happen to have in Dr. Unger 
a worker of exceptional importance in 
this field of labour, we may well regard it 
as a proof of a favourable tendency appar- 
ent within the immediate confines of our 
movement. For this movement will not 
make its true depth felt in the world at 
large by appealing to those whose only 



PHILOSOPHY AND THEOSOPHY 167 

desire is to hear of facts concerning the 
Higher World, but by the labours of such 
as have the patience requisite to press 
forward into the intricacies of a Thought 
Method; who are possessed of definite 
motive for accomplishing solid work, such 
as provides the frame-work for yet fur- 
ther labours in the Higher World. 

Thus, perhaps, it may come to pass that 
within the Theosophical movement — 
from out Theosophy itself — Scholasticism, 
twisted as it has been both by its adher- 
ents as well as its enemies into a grim 
caricature of itself, may once again be 
presented in such a manner as to be 
understood. 

It is of course far easier to apply a few 
ready-made definitions to everything con- 
fronting us as a new truth, — f ar easier than 
to labour at constructing a solid founda- 
tion by means of a Method of Thought; 



168 PHILOSOPHY AND THEOSOPHY 

but what are the consequent results? 
Taking up a philosophical book of the 
present day one is left with a dubious 
impression: men no longer understand 
each other when conversing on higher 
matters; they are not clear in their own 
minds with regard to the definitions of 
which they make use. This could not 
have happened in the time of the Schol- 
astics. In those days men were com- 
pelled to be accurate as to the form in 
which they clothed an idea. 

As you may have perceived, there was 
at one time in very truth a Way by 
which to probe to the depths of a genuine 
Thought Method, and had this Path been 
pursued further, no one would have 
become entangled in the web of the Kan- 
tian "thing in itself," with its supposedly 
subjective conceptions. 

Two results would then have been 



PHILOSOPHY AND THEOSOPHY 169 

attained. In the first place man would 
have arrived, within himself, at a reliable 
theory of conception, and in the second 
place, and this is of great importance, 
the accepted Centres of Learning could 
not have misunderstood so absolutely 
the great philosophers whose labours 
came after those of Kant. 

Kant was succeeded by Fichte, Schel- 
ling, and Hegel, — what are they to the 
man of to-day? They are assumed to be 
philosophers who sought to present a 
world by means of purely abstract defini- 
tions. Such an idea never occurred to 
them. 

But people were firmly imbued with 
the Kantian conception, and for that 
reason incapable of understanding the 
world's greatest philosophers, either rela- 
tively or philosophically. 

Hegel spent his youth here in Stutt- 



170 PHILOSOPHY AND THEOSOPHY 






gart; the house where he lived stands 
opposite as you enter this street in which 
we are holding our present meetings. A 
tablet commemorates the fact. But only 
gradually will people ripen to an under- 
standing of all that Hegel has given to the 
world, and only when they have emanci- 
pated themselves from this hampering 
self -woven web of theoretical conceptions 
will they be capable of understanding 
him. 

Yet this would be so simple ! It is only 
necessary to accustom oneself to a natural 
and unconstrained mode of thinking, 
and to free oneself from the tendencies 
now prevalent in philosophic literature, 
which, under the confusing influences of 
the Kantian School, have developed into 
set habits of thought. 

We must ourselves be able to answer 
this question clearly: Is it really the case 



PHILOSOPHY AND THEOSOPHY 171 

that man, who proceeds from the subject, 
constructs his conception within the sub- 
ject and then weaves that conception, as 
it were, about the object? Is this really 
so? 

Yes, it is so. 

But, does it follow as a consequent 
necessity that man is unable ever to 
penetrate into the ''thing in itself"? I 
will put forward a simple example: 

Imagine, for instance, that you have a 
seal, and upon that seal the name of 
Miller. Now, press your seal on to some 
sealing-wax, and again remove it. 

Now you are, I take it, quite certain 
in your mind that this seal, being, let us 
say, of brass, no property of the brass 
will pass over into the wax. Were the 
sealing-wax conscious in the Kantian 
sense, it would say: "I am entirely wax; 
no brass passes over into me, I can there- 



172 PHILOSOPHY AND THEOSOPHY 

fore have no knowledge concerning the 
nature of that which has approached 
me." 

And yet, one thing has here been left 
out of the question entirely — the very 
thing, moreover, that really counts ! That 
is the name of " Miller* ' which remains 
objectively imprinted upon the sealing- 
wax, yet without any portion of the brass 
having adhered to it. 

So long as people think and believe 
materialistically, that in order to estab- 
lish a connection, matter is bound to pass 
over from the one to the other, just so 
long will they in theory maintain : 

"I am sealing-wax, and that other is 
'brass in itself'; and as none of the 
1 brass in itself can enter me, therefore 
the name of ' Miller ' can be no more 
than a sign. Although the 'thing in 
itself' that has impressed itself upon me, 



PHILOSOPHY AND THEOSOPHY 173 

so that I can read it, this ' thing in itself ' 
remains unknown to me." 

And there you have the final argument 
that is made to serve for all. Were we to 
continue this illustration, it would work 
out thus : 

"Man is all sealing-wax (conception). 
The 'thing in itself is all seal (that 
which is exterior to the conception). 

"Now, as I, being wax (the person con- 
ceiving), can but attain to the outer sur- 
face of the seal, (the 'thing in itself) so 
nothing concerning the 'thing in itself 
can reach me." 

So long as people insist on carrying 
materialism and the theory of definition 
to these extremes, so long will they be 
unable to recognise that upon which the 
question depends. 

The matter stands thus : We do not get 
beyond our conception, but that which is 



174 PHILOSOPHY AND THEOSOPHY 

transmitted to us may be defined as 
Spirit, and that stands in no need of 
material atoms for its transmission. 
Nothing of matter enters the subject, 
yet in spite of this, the idea transfers 
itself to the subject, as indeed was the 
case with the name of Miller on the seal- 
ing-wax. 

It is from this point *that the start 
towards a healthy study of the Theory of 
Definition must again be made, and it 
will then be seen how much the material- 
ism of recent times has (quite uncon- 
sciously to itself) acquired a hold upon 
the conceptions pertaining to the Theory 
of Knowledge. 

The result of unprejudiced observation 
amounts to this : that Kant can only con- 
ceive a "thing in itself " materially, — 
grotesque as this statement may at first 
seem. 



PHILOSOPHY AND THEOSOPHY 175 

But in order to survey the case in its 
entirety, something further must be indi- 
cated. We have said that Aristotle has 
pointed out the fact that in everything 
surrounding us it becomes necessary to 
differentiate between what is Form (En- 
telechy ) , and what is Material . Now what 
we can say is this : that the process of con- 
ception takes us as far as the Form, in the 
sense above indicated. But, is there any 
possibility of reaching that which is the 
substance? For we must bear in mind 
that to Aristotle material means not alone 
matter, but also that substance which, 
though spirit, yet forms the bed-rock, as 
it were, of Reality. Is there any possi- 
bility, not only of conceiving that which, 
so to speak, " flows across," but of "creep- 
ing within" the interior of things, and so 
identifying oneself with matter? This is 
an important question with regard to the 



176 PHILOSOPHY AND THEOSOPHY 

Theory of Cognition, and it can be an- 
swered only by one who has immersed 
himself within the nature of thought, that 
is, of pure thought ; and to the conception 
of pure thought man must first ascend. 

Pure thought we can determine as 
Actuality, as indeed Aristotle himself 
did. It is pure Form, as it first presents 
itself and without context in respect to 
those separate and immediate objects 
which exist externally in the Reality of 
the senses. And why? Let us get a 
clear comprehension as to how pure con- 
ception comes into being, in contradis- 
tinction to perception. 

Imagine some one desiring to form the 
conception of a circle. This can be done 
by going out to sea so far that nothing 
save water can be perceived around : you 
then by means of your perception form 
the conception of a circle. There is, 






PHILOSOPHY AND THEOSOPHY 177 

however, another way of arriving at the 
conception of a circle, and that is if, withr 
out appealing to the senses, you say to 
yourself: I will make a mental note of all 
those places which are equidistant from 
one particular spot. Now, this piece of 
mental construction which is carried on 
within yourself needs no appeal to any- 
thing external, and this is an example of 
pure thought, as Aristotle conceived it— 
of pure Actuality. 

But here we are confronted by some- 
thing of peculiar importance. Pure 
thought thus conceived fits in with ex- 
perience; without it experience itself is 
inconceivable. Imagine Kepler evolving 
by means of a theory of pure conception 
such a system as shows the elliptical 
courses of the planets, in one of the foci 
of which the sun is situated, and then 
imagine observation by such means as the 



178 PHILOSOPHY AND THEOSOPHY 

telescope subsequently confirming that 
which previous experience had presented 
in the realms of pure thought ! 

Surely this clearly demonstrates to 
every unprejudiced thinker that Pure 
Thought is not without significance for 
Reality, for it is in accord with it. A dis- 
coverer such as Kepler illustrates by 
means of his actions that which Aristotel- 
ism has theoretically affirmed by means of 
methodical thought. He takes that 
which belongs to the Universalia post rein, 
and finds upon nearer approach that the 
Universalia post rem was even prior to 
this, that is to say, that it was already 
contained within itself as Universalia 
ante rem. 

Now, if the Universalia be accepted in 
the right sense (not merely subjectively 
accepted, after the perverted sense), 
they will then reveal themselves objec- 



PHILOSOPHY AND THEOSOPHY 179 

tively in things, and to these ends they 
must first be formulated after the manner 
in which Aristotle conceived them as the 
very foundation of the world. 

Thus you will find that what at first 
seems the most subjective and which was 
confirmed as independent of all experience, 
is after all that which in the most objec- 
tive manner leads the way to the Actual. 
Now, what is the reason why the subjec- 
tive could not reveal itself first in the 
world? The reason is that its way is 
barred by a " thing in itself.' ' 

When you construct a circle you do not 
knock up against any such obstruction, 
because you are living within the thing 
itself, though but formally so, to begin 
with. 

The next question is, can we by means 
of such subjective thinking arrive at any 
kind of Reality, at aught that is perma- 



180 PHILOSOPHY AND THEOSOPHY 

nent? The point on which the whole 
matter hinges is that the subjective (as 
we have already characterised it) when 
constructed in thought, is a formation, 
that objectively presents itself as some- 
thing additional. We may of course say 
that it is after all a matter of utter indif- 
ference to any circle, or to any sphere in 
this world whether we think of it, or not! 
Our thoughts concerning the Actual are 
matters of indifference to the surrounding 
world of experience. This exists in itself, 
quite irrespective of our thoughts. Our 
thinking may therefore be objective as 
far as we are concerned, and yet be of no 
moment to the thing. 

How are we to get rid of this apparent 
contradiction? Where is the opposite 
pole we must now take hold of? Where is 
there a Way within the domain of Pure 
Thought by which we may conceive, 



PHILOSOPHY AND THEOSOPHY 181 

not alone the Form, but together with 
the Form also the Reality? For as soon 
as ever we have anything that together 
with the form constitutes reality, we then 
have a fixed point at which to set up our 
theoretical knowledge. 

We are everywhere in the same posi- 
tion as in the case of the circle. When 
we construct the circle we can say: 
"What I know respecting this circle is 
objectively right, but whether it is appli- 
cable to 'things' depends on whether 
when I meet those things, they prove to 
me that they are subject to the laws 
which I myself have formulated.' ' If 
the total of all Entelechy resolves itself 
into pure thought, then a residuum must 
remain, a residuum known to Aristotle 
as Matter, where it is not possible by the 
process of Pure Thought itself to reach 
Reality. 



1 82 PHILOSOPHY AND THEOSOPHY 

And on this point Aristotle may be cor- 
roborated by the philosopher Fichte. By 
the Aristotelian method we may arrive 
at the following formula: "Everything 
about us, including all things belong- 
ing to the invisible world, necessitates 
the postulating of a material in order 
to account for the formative Entele- 
chy. ,, 

To Aristotle the idea of God is a pure 
Actuality, a pure act; that is to say, an 
act in which Actuality, that which is for- 
mulative, is at the same time endowed 
with power to bring forth its own ma- 
terial; not something that exists apart 
from the material, but something that 
by reason of its own activity is one with 
the material. 

The image of such pure Actuality is to 
be found in man himself, when by pure 
thought he arrives at the definition of 



PHILOSOPHY AND THEOSOPHY 183 

the "I" (the Self— the Ego). In con- 
ceiving this "I" he has, according to 
Fichte, performed an act, or deed. He 
has within his own consciousness arrived 
at something, which, seeing he lives in 
Actuality, similarly brings forth both this 
Actuality and its material. Now, if we 
conceive this "I " in pure thought, we are 
then in a centre where pure thought 
brings forth, or evolves, the essentials for 
its own material being. If you conceive 
this " I" in thought, then a threefold "I " 
becomes apparent: the pure "I" belong- 
ing to the Universalia ante rem; an "I" 
wherein you yourself are, and which 
belongs to the Universalia in re: and an 
"I" which you conceive, and which 
belongs to the Universalia post rem. But 
here again is an important point: for the 
"I" is so constituted that when we ele- 
vate the mind to an actual conception 



1 84 PHILOSOPHY AND THEOSOPHY 

of it, the threefold "I" becomes merged 
into one. 

In conceiving its true definition the " I " 
lives within itself, being able to exist as 
the reality in the definition. What is 
accomplished by pure thought is imma- 
terial to the "I," for the pure thought is 
the creator of the " I. " 

Here the definition of the Creative 
coincides with that of the Material, and 
we have to acknowledge that, while in all 
other processes of conception we come 
to some limit, this is not the case with 
the "I." This we embrace in its inner- 
most being when we enfold it in pure 
thought. 

We may therefore by means of theo- 
retical conception lay down this funda- 
mental axiom, namely, "that by dint 
of pure thought a point is attainable 
where Reality and Subjectiveness are in 



PHILOSOPHY AND THEOSOPHY 185 

complete union, where, in short, man 
experiences Reality." 

If one stops at this point, and allows 
one's thoughts so to fructify that they 
again evolve from out themselves, then 
has one grasped those things from within. 
There is, therefore, something in this "I" 
conceived, and at the same time created, 
by an effort of pure thought, an effort by 
which we force the boundary which has 
to be placed for all other things between 
Entelechy (Form) and Matter. 

By such means, a theory of cognition 
logically pursued becomes something that 
can also, by means of pure thought, point 
the Way into Reality. If you pursue 
this Path, you are eventually bound to 
find that it leads to Theosophy. There 
are, however, but few philosophers who 
have any understanding of this Path. 
Most of them are entangled within their 



1 86 PHILOSOPHY AND THEOSOPHY 

self-spun web of definitions, and as they 
know the definition only as something 
abstract, never apprehending that point 
where it becomes the archetype of the 
creative, they are incapable of finding 
aught by means of which they may come 
into direct contact with the "thing in 
itself." 

You see therefore what will be neces- 
sary before we can expect philosophers 
to cease regarding Theosophists as the 
merest dilettanti. Philosophers must first 
have philosophy enough to acknowledge 
the existence of a Philosophy that goes to 
the foundation of things. It is not really 
that Philosophy contradicts Theosophy, 
but rather that philosophers themselves 
do not understand Philosophy. They 
know nothing of the deeper foundations 
of Philosophy. They are blinded and 
lost in a labyrinth of their own theories 



PHILOSOPHY AND THEOSOPHY 187 

out of which they are unable to find an 
exit. 

When once they extricate themselves 
from their present coil, they will find 
their way to Theosophy. It is not that 
Theosophy is really so amateurish a thing 
to the philosopher, since he cannot under- 
stand it; — what is far more to be ac- 
counted amateurish in the present day is 
the sort of philosophy which largely domi- 
nates the world. When at length this 
philosophy becomes capable of entering 
its true province of thought, then also 
will a bridge have been thrown across, 
spanning the gulf and leading from 
Philosophy to Theosophy. 



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